High Five for Friday!

If you read this post, then you know this week was on a whole different level.

Which means, a whole different level of High Five for Friday. Not that I'm not thankful for "little things" this week, but preeeeeeety much all of my thankfulness surrounds the fact that I did NOT give birth this week to a 3lb baby!

Given that, here are my top five moments of the week:

1) Baby Boy is still a little bun, bakin' in my oven! ThankthegoodLordandbabyJesus

2) My bed rest is a two hours on, two hours up situation. I don't HAVE to be horizontal All. Day. Every. Day. I can still shower and do some normal-people activities!

3) In fact, I used one of my "two hour breaks" to run to Micheal's Craft Store and get some crafting materials for the nursery. HINT: These are indeed baby boy's initials/monogram. We've have his name picked out since the beginning, which was good because we only had a boy name picked out. The story goes like this: Me: "Babe, I want to name our baby _________ if it's a boy; I've loved that name for YEARS." Hubby: "I like it! Done." Which, frankly, is how most decisions are made in our household; me asking for what I want/what my husband thinks, and him (very wisely!) giving the go-ahead. What can I say, I know what I want.

Monogram painting and picture frame crafts are underway!

4) Last weekend, I mentioned that my sister was in town and that we were having our maternity shoot. Well, the weather was beautiful and we managed to get some FANTASTIC shots! I can't wait to see the rest of them and put a few up in the nursery and our master bedroom. Until then, here's another one of the preview shots I got to check out:

Paige and Baby Boy at 30 weeks

5) If you follow me on Instagram then you likely know about this pic. I've gotten TONS of dog snuggles since being laid up on the couch! My little man Otis Beaufort is the BEST at dog snuggles.

Happy Weekend everyone!

And Then There Was... Bed Rest

You read that title right.

Bed rest.

Two words that literally encapsulate my own personal definition of hell. Bed bound. Couch bound. No exercise. No activities. No outings. No life. I have been put on bed rest for essentially the remainder of my pregnancy: for the next six weeks or until my condition stabilizes and improves.

I had initially typed up a whole novel, describing what happened - not in extensive detail, but the post got lengthy anyway. To spare you the boring, medical heavy read, I started to go into preterm labor. My contractions were painless, but I did have "back labor" that was INDEED painful. These painless contractions (called Braxton Hicks... Until you start to have them ten minutes apart) even started to dilate me so that this little 30 week gestation babe would come out. No no no!

Thankfully, my midwives were able to assess my situation and give me some tools to stay out of a hospital and keep this baby in and cookin' for a while longer. Best rest is a surprisingly controversial topic and medical practice. It's not my or my midwives goal to keep me on this obnoxious path; but drastic measures had to be taken to stop my body from going into labor, relax my muscles (including that big bully of a muscle, the uterus!), and get things back on track to having a full-term baby. I have another appointment in two weeks to reevaluate how things are going, and there is a chance I could  have some of my restrictions lifted. Then again, I potentially could stay on this path for a full six weeks. Exercise (at least, in the forms that I'm used to) are O-U-T until 37 weeks when I'm full term and baby boy can safely enter the world, but that's ok with me. I'd be happy with the ability to leave the house at this point!

I've now been on bed rest for two days. Oddly, it's FLOWN by. The truth is, I was feeling really, really crappy. With the nonstop rest, I'm actually starting to feel normal again! Go figure. I have to be horizontal (i.e. laying on a bed or couch), but am allowed a "two hours on, two hours off" ratio where I can get up and shower, make a quick meal, and stay seated/upright long enough to eat it and put my dishes in the dishwasher. So, it could be worse! I really believe in finding the positive and bright spots in a bad situation, so this is exactly what I'm drop-to-my-knees-thankful for right now:

• I'm writing this from my bed, not from a NICU. I'm feeling my 30 week old son move inside me, not staring at him wiggle and struggle to breathe in an incubator. He's still exactly where he should be and still getting exactly what he needs to make a successful entrance into the world.

• I'm not in a hospital with synthetic drugs running through my veins in attempts to stop a preterm labor AND I get brief periods of time throughout the day to get up and move! (I'm technically on a hybrid of modified and strict bed rest.)

• There's a chance I won't have to spend the remainder of my pregnancy on bed rest! If things have improved at my next appointment, I'll likely be able to incorporate light daily activities back into my day with scheduled rest time. I'm very encouraged that even in the short time I've been on bed rest, my contractions have DRAMATICALLY decreased - what I used to experience in an hour, I'm not even having in a 24hr full day. This is promising! At my next apt, I'll be 32 weeks and having multiple, painless contractions a day will officially be in the "normal zone." Yay!

• I have some amazing friends and family. Friends who have gone "on call" in case I need anything, and family who volunteered to fly to Dallas immediately or upon me/my husband's request to help out. Seriously, we lucked out with some great people in our lives.

• I got to spend what could be my last "baby free, bed rest free" weekend with my sister! We took AMAZING maternity shots, went to lots of yoga and ate good food. I have a lucky habit of going out with a bang (my husband and I took a weekend trip to New Orleans; two days after returning we found out about our surprise pregnancy!) and this was no different. Excellent :)

• All MAJOR baby preparations are done. He has all his furniture ordered and it will start to trickle in over the coming weeks; all important gear (i.e. car seat) is already in our home; registries are created; most new born necessities bought, etc. Any remaining things I need can be bought online and shipped to my front door, and I can use my two hours of "up time" to organize the nursery. THANK GOODNESS.  

And since sharing a pic of me on bed rest wouldn't be very interesting, nor is my view from said bed/couch, nor are my activities, here is a preview shot I received yesterday of our maternity shoot I referenced above! We lucked out with a beautiful, sun shine filled day to spend at White Rock Lake and the Dallas Arboretum. I love that we can have a March outdoor shoot in tank tops and blooming flowers in Texas!

Interior Design: Common Living Space Wall Decor

I mentioned in this post that I was working on a project for the living room. Last week, I posted this post about blending styles to create a comfortable living space when you and your spouse have, uhhh... errrrrr... Different styles.

I'm happy to report that I was finally able to complete our living room decor this past weekend! This project has been on my brain for well over a year. I had every intention of doing this in the townhome that we used to live in... But never quite found the time to select what prints with what frames to create a cohesive theme. Yadayadayada. I just never did it, end of story.

Alas, I did manage to get around to it in our new home! Without further commentary, our living room wall decor:

The silver frames are from Crate & Barrel; the black frames are unknown! You'll see there's room to add more frames as we expand our family and we also have the option to rotate out the pictures within the frames to keep our wall "current."

We have a "great room" type of setup in our home, so that the living room, dining room and kitchen are all open to each other. While this is a large space, we also have four massive, floor-to-ceiling windows. These windows let in a wonderful amount of light into the room, but REALLY limit the wall space for any sort of artwork/decor. So while we have this big space, it's broken up quite nicely with the windows so that we don't have one (or more!) massive, blank wall to attempt to cover up.

What I like about creating a "larger image" by grouping together multiple smaller items/frames is that you can customize the look and size to the room and the wall space you're working with. So, if you have a reeeeeeal big space, you can use a larger number of larger prints/frames to cover the space; if it's smaller, you can mix and match sizes to achieve the effect you're after. Also, we happen to have four large pieces of furniture in the room (sectional couch, 6' bookshelf, 65" TV and entertainment center below wall-mounted TV - men and their large TV's, amirightladies?! Every time my husband wants to go to the movies, I ask, "Why?! We have a home theater complete with blinding screen and surround sound, better food, cleaner bathrooms and no obnoxious teenagers on their phones texting throughout the whole movie!" But I digress...)

The same concept applied with four pieces of art, all the same size in the same mat and frame. This is the only wall space left with all the large windows in our Great Room! The curtains also work to add some texture to the room.

Having smaller pieces on the wall provides some balance to the room, so that it's not dwarfed by all the "big" things in it. Creating a wall decor look sufficient for the space out of smaller items helps provide balance when dealing with a large space full of large furniture. It can also break up consistent shapes in the room. For example, if you have a rectangle couch, with a rectangle coffee table, with the rectangle of your TV all in the same room, you can "break up" that shape by creating an array of frames creatively on your wall. In the picture above, I used a square to break up the long rectangles of the windows.

That wraps up our common living space updates! Up next: our master bedroom. We're juuuuuuust about complete with what that room will look like, so expect a post about how I got creative in that large, dark space (it really is the antithesis of our Great Room from a lighting perspective!)

Simplifying Your Cleaning Routine

Whether you hate cleaning, or you're insanely busy with work and hobbies and don't have time to clean, or you "make" yourself busy with work and hobbies in order to not have time to clean, one thing is pretty clear: Cleaning is a massive pain in the rump!

When both the hubby and I were working extra-full-time hours, we hired a cleaning service to come in every other week and get the job done. Outside of wiping down kitchen counters, we simply let the dust bunnies (really, these should be called the dog hair bunnies, because that's exactly what they were) pile up until our fantastic service would come and clean everything away.

Now that I stay home, a cleaning service seems a tad excessive to me. But staying home didn't manage to change the fact that I, like you, really dislike cleaning! So I had to get creative when devising a plan to keep this house clean. This is what I've come up with to stay on top of the cleaning without feeling like I'm ALWAYS cleaning, or that the house is ALWAYS dirty:

- Do a little bit each day
For me, I have my "daily" areas and my "rotation" areas. The kitchen gets wiped down and dishes get done daily (ahem, multiple times a day). I also run the vacuum daily, but have divided the house into two sections and alternate what part gets vacuumed each day. Now, this is because we have hardwoods throughout the whole house (zero carpet) and one massive doggie shed-er and one who tracks in grass, leaves, various forms of nature, etc. Bottom line, just figure out the part of your house that has to be attended to regularly given your life circumstances and add it to the "daily" list. I would try to keep it to two to four things that you can't stand seeing a mess - your whole house can't end up on this list :)

Major time saver: Dirt Devil Express V6. It's cordless and bag-less and perfect for picking up dog hair in corners and along baseboards of hardwood floors.

-Pick a task, not a room
The "rotation" consists of a task. I won't pick a room in the house and break out the duster, floor cleaner, Windex, and whatever else may be needed to clean it. Rather, I pick one cleaning item related to one task and do it throughout the whole house. For example, today I broke out the duster and dusted every room in the house. Tomorrow, I'll likely get a few bathroom cleaning products (say, toilet cleaner and soft scrub to clean the sinks) to work on our two bathrooms; then possibly the next day I'll break out the floor mop and cleaner to get the bathroom and kitchen floors.

Picking a task over a room means that you only have to prepare and put away one to two cleaning items. It's a huge waste of time to get all the stuff out to clean "just one room" - you'll spend half your time prepping and then cleaning up after your clean, as opposed to actually cleaning! Breaking it down by task enables you to get what you need out, get your work done and actually spend your timing cleaning, and then clean up only what you used for all the spaces in the house that used that cleaning item.

The Swifter Dusters makes dusting furniture and wall decor super easy: the replaceable wand covers actually trap dust so you don't push it around your house, nor have to spray toxic chemicals and then wipe them up for a proper cleaning. I can dust my entire house in 20 minutes with this little guy!

I've found this to be a really helpful cleaning "hack" that helps to simplify the cleaning process and make it much more bearable. Remember: Have your "daily" list of things that need daily attention and limit that list to no more than four items. Then pick your "rotation" that uses one cleaning agent, and clean all areas in the house that use that particular cleaning agent. Happy reduced stress and more efficient cleaning!

If anyone knows of any similar tactics to use for laundry, by all means send me an email! I despise laundry and would love to hear about any ways/methods you have to make that a more enjoyable process.

Mommy Monday: Ten Juicy Questions

If you read any other blogs, especially of other women bloggers who are preggo, then you've likely seen (or a variation of) this post before. It's a fun way to over-share details of your pregnancy. I took the liberty to edit it down to ten questions, and kept the answers as honest and real as possible.

Now, I'm EXTREMELY excited about becoming a mommy. I CANNOT WAIT to hold this little dude in my arms! And there are moments of pregnancy that are indeed pretty awe-inspiring, like feeling the first movements, seeing the baby on the ultrasound for the first time, and simply knowing that your body is just doing this, without you having to think about it - it's just GROWING a human. Whoasies.

BUT LET ME BE PERFECTLY CLEAR, dear readers: I absolutely, positively, cannot stand being pregnant! It is an evil that must be endured for a fantastic end result. It's been a relief to bond with other mama's who feel the same why I do and understand that you don't have to love the means to love the end. And pregnancy is a mean means, know what I mean?

So, in the spirit of full disclosure, read on to be amused by my serious discomfort and disdain for pregnancy.

Ten Juicy and Personal Pregnancy Questions: 30 Weeks Preggo

Symptoms: Massive heartburn! Just terrible heartburn: wake-you-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-breathing-fire-and-drooling-acid-on-pillowcase-level heartburn. Indigestion that keeps my appetite at bay (I have no cravings as I wasn't an emotional eater to begin with, and now it's simply a miracle to eat a full meal), massively enlarges breasts (up five cup sizes… I mean, really?! They officially no longer make bra's in my 32 inch band with the cup size I need. Ladies with smaller chests, know that you won the genetic lottery), leaky nipples (FUN!), round ligament pain while vigorously exercising, constant achy hips as they widen for birth (see photo below...), waddling, backaches, more backaches and much more heartburn. And now in my third trimester, a return of nausea! You know, because we just missed each other so much.

Exercise: Hell yes! Five to seven times/week. This is the ONLY thing keeping me sane at this point in my life. I’m doing a mix of yoga (regular vinyasa flow with modifications, not actual prenatal classes), ballet barre classes, power walking in the beautiful Dallas spring weather, and circuit training/weight lifting classes. I did Insanity training through 25 weeks, but those days are now on hold until baby boy gets served his eviction notice from my body in early June. Due to the shape I was in before getting pregnant, I’ve been able to keep up with just about everything, and I’m SO unbelievably thankful for that!

New this week: We attended our first birth class this past weekend! Our midwives ask all mothers and husbands to participate in The Bradly Method to learn the ins and outs to natural births. This is an EIGHT WEEK class. I feel like I could be a certified midwife after this…

What I'm missing: Hardcore interval training – I'm talking music TURNT UP and balls-to-the-f*$&ing-walling it exercise. My reduced lung capacity and massive, "straight out" baby bump don’t remotely allow for this. I miss the endorphins you feel after such a workout;running sprints and 8-10 mile runs; sushi; beer and wine; walking up a flight of stairs without becoming entirely breathless; non-maternity jeans (why do women like maternity jeans?! They slip down your bum and don’t you miss buttoning your pants like a normal adult?! Also, the belly on these things is so friggin itchy, and it’s only getting worse as Texas heats up. I’m a big NO on maternity jeans, but I know I’m in the minority on that one).

Wedding Rings On/Off:  On – I’ve been so lucky to have zero swelling anywhere. Heyoooo, a pregnancy symptom I don’t actually suffer from, there’s a change! Wootwoot!

Belly button in/out:Out – but only ¾ out! The bottom hasn’t fully popped yet. It’s been this way since about 21 weeks. Lean muscular tummy + growing baby = instabellybuttonpoppage

Dr. visit: We went to our midwives at 27 weeks (last monthly appointment – we’ll begin the every two week visits this month!) and he was measuring at almost 29 weeks, so he’s sizing two weeks ahead of schedule. He had been sizing a week behind my official due date, but I started to take an iron supplement for pregnancy-induced anemia (that's a REAL treat, let me tell you), and he’s done quite well for himself with all the necessary iron. My blood pressure was great and my heartbeat was 52 while his was 148, I DON’T have gestational diabetes, and I was given a high-five for my healthy eating as demonstrated by my food log. Bam! Take THAT to yo face, preggo symptoms!

My mood: So, sans-baby, I’m the least emotional woman you have or haven’t met. With this little bugger, I don’t think I’ve made it through one movie without crying. In fact, I even cried in the most recent Hunger Games movie. (When JLaw was screaming after Prim?! Y'all. Seriously!)

On the left, I'm 3 weeks pregnant and had just finished a half marathon (with a PR!). On the right, I'm 30 weeks pregnant, and had just finished dinner. The shorts are maxed out with my new birthin' hips and I couldn't even attempt the pre/early preggo sports bra. What a difference a "0" makes!

Weight gain: 17 lbs. I’m going to try to make it to the 25 pound mark for total weight gain, so we'll see if I can get there. (25 pounds is the minimum standard recommendation for women who started their pregnancies off at a healthy BMI in traditional American medicine.) I’ve found that I need to eat - at every meal - to the point of being UNCOMFORTABLY full to gain just one pound in a week. 

I’m trying, but I also believe that your body will do what it needs to do if you're smart enough to listen to it. As long as baby boy is healthy and my midwives aren’t concerned, then to hell with conventional weight gain amounts. My midwives don’t hand out a “target number” like OBGYN's do, but instead want their women to focus on her and baby’s health, and that’s exactly what I’m doing with my diet. You’ll find zero processed/fast foods (you could not PAY ME to eat McDonalds) and minimal sugar consumption in my diet (no cakes, cupcakes or cookie binge eating here), so I guess I’m not surprised that my weight gain has been lowwwww and slowwwww. Kinda like Southern BBQ, which went down pretty good last week. Mmmm, pulled pork...

Stretch marks:NONE! And seriously hoping it stays that way. I hear that if you haven’t developed them by around 25 weeks, you’re not likely to develop the “all over the belly red marks” that I was dumb enough to google and develop nightmares over. Also, my mom didn’t get them with her babies; hoping I got handed down those great genes. My weight gain is also minimal, so that’s working in my favor, as is my age (still in my 20’s - ohwhutup collagen, thanks for working for me!) I’m feeling good about this! C’mon skin, we got it, we got it, hang with me for 10 more weeks...

High Five for Friday!

You know what’s so great about these High Five for Friday posts? It gets you looking back at your week for all the good stuff that happened. Even if, when I sit down to write these Friday posts, I think, “Meh, it was a mediocre week…” after writing these posts I get to thinking, “Dang! This week was pretty great!”

If you’re in a place in your life where you need a little extra positivity, and aren’t we all, I really suggest taking a few moments out of your day at the end of the week to look back and find some things that you’re thankful for, that made you smile, or just generally made you a happier camper. It REALLY changes your perspective on the whole week and gets you in the habit of looking for the good things in your life.

And now that my sermon has concluded, here are my five bestest moments of the last week in March:

1) I posted this about the importance of yoga in general, and how I was using my practice to get me ready for my planned natural birth. I was absolutely, positively OVERWHELMED by the fantastic response from you all! I’ve been getting emails and messages of encouragement all week long; and outside of the “birth realm” I’ve had numerous conversations with folks looking to start their own yoga practice, and the best way for them to do that. The outcomes of this post will leave me smiling for WEEKS to come, and I have all of you to thank for that! (You can also see some of my poses circulating on my Pinterest if you happen to be a Pinner)

2    2) MY SISTER IS IN TOWN!!! She lives in NYC and I’m down here in Dallas, so the obvious choice was for her to come to the warm, sunny South while NYC still gets its spring act together. While we won’t be able to stay up late drinking wine for this particular visit, we have some fun activities planned for the weekend!

3    3) Speaking of fun activities… She’s doing our maternity shoot this weekend! (See, there was a reason for the time consuming mani/pedi yesterday - and also the BLUE toes for the baby BOY shoot!) I’m not one for a photo-montage of bare belly pics and the “looking longing and lovingly into the eyes of your partner while everyone cups your belly” shots (ya know, with like, mist in the background. I mean… whoa) She has her own photography business, which you should check out, and also did a bombdotcom job with our engagement photos, an example of which you can see here. I know she’ll do a great job and I can’t wait to share a few of the shots with you!

Tootsies are ready for a baby BOY maternity shoot!

S    4) Speaking of maternity shots (see how all the weeks events were inter-related?), I actually went out, to a brick and mortar store, to get part of my maternity outfit. I am NOT a shopper. I don’t like excessive “things” lying around my house, so I buy what I need, when I need it, with only occasional extra purchases. Most of said purchasing is done online, free from checkout lines, fitting room fiascos and mall-walkers (who always stop RIGHT in front of me, where I’m trying to walk. Whudupwitdat?) Like I said, my sis and I were brainstorming our maternity shoot just this week, so I was left with no other choice but to actually GO to a store… And it wasn’t horrible! Turns out, mid-day, mid-week shopping can actually be pleasant: I found a parking spot right away, didn’t have to elbow anyone to maneuver past them, AND what I was looking for was on sale! Winning.

5    5) I discovered fresh-squeezed pineapple juice. Not the junk in the “juice” aisle that’s three percent juice and 97% high-fructose corn syrup with various dyes to make it look fruity. Please, just don’t even go down that aisle. No no, the stuff from the juice bar that must be refrigerated, goes bad in about four days, and has ONE ingredient: the fruit for which the juice is named. OMG, y’all!!! It. Is. So. Good. Cannot. Stop. Consuming.

THIS juice. Nuf said.

      HAPPY WEEKEND, READER!!!

One Of *Those* Days

So I have one of my favorite people coming into town tomorrow, and we have a pretty packed agenda that required a good chunk of prep-work prior to her arrival. "No prob!" I thought, as I organized my day so that I could get everything done, including pre-writing some blog posts.

I spent my morning getting a TON of work done, and was feeling pretty good about my accomplishments! Then right as I was climbing into my car to knock some personal to-do's off the list, I realized... I completely didn't know what day it was. And I had written all the wrong blog posts. "What the heck is WRONG with me?! Where did my brain go?!" I thought as I headed towards errand #1. And as I snapped out of my mental abuse session, I realized... Where am I going?! This isn't what I was supposed to be doing! What road am I even on?!

Ever have days like that? It's almost like your brain REFUSES to work properly. C'mon brain. Get with the program here. Keep operating in this capacity, and natural selection is bound to 'off us, and real quick like, too.

So, I guess I'll share with you all what I spent some of my time doing during the day, instead of creating a legitimate blog post:

Robins Egg blue pedi

Neutral pink gel mani

Yes, I spent a few hours at the nail salon, and now I'm blogging about it because my previous posts I spent some serious time on are for tomorrow and next week. While this isn't particularly blog-worthy in my book (oooooookay Paige, get serious: this blog post is a sad joke thus far!) THIS IS WORTH MENTIONING:

While I was sitting in my chair getting my toes did up, a man brought in his elderly mother for her to get her nails done, too. She was likely in her 80's, he in his late 60's. He was kind, sweet and attentive to her, making sure she got the color she wanted and was comfortable before leaving her to run errands while she enjoyed herself. He even gave her manicurist his number in case she needed anything, or forgot where she was while he was away.

My heart melted.

And in that moment, watching that interaction from a few feet away, I was so immensely glad, overjoyed, thankful, humbled, thrilled, and filled with love over the fact that I'm having a son, too. My husband treats me the way this man treats his mama; I cannot wait to watch my husband teach his son how to treat important women in his life, and I cannot wait to be an active participant in those lessons myself.

And now, you know, before I cry or something, let's break it down to the realest level: My penchant for having my nails done up right isn't fading as I get older, and at 29, I'm a sub-par and distracted driver, so...... You know. Mama gon' need a ride to the nail salon, son. Raise'emright!