26 Weeks

How far along? 26 Weeks

Total weight gain? As of the last doctor's appointment I have officially gained 17 lbs. HOLY GUACAMOLE!!! The doctor however says it's fine, that I look great and have a big baby so it's no big deal. Given my boobs have grown drastically, but the baby being 2 lbs now and given the boobs probably 2 lbs MAX - that's TOO much weight by my standards. I don't care what my doctor says. Cue depression. LOL I shouldn't gain more than 30 lbs over the course of the pregnancy and Coraline still has her biggest growth spurts ahead of us. Next appointment is June 3rd so hopefully the weight gain will have slowed down. 

Maternity Clothes? ASOS in the UK is the only reliable pregnancy store I have found so far. I love all their stylish clothes for women in their 20s, plus free shipping on returns. Everything is GREATLY priced and not cheaply made. I have also recently bought a few items from Old Navy after a fellow blogger buddy stated how great their items were too. The items in the photo though are from Motherhood Maternity.

Stretch Marks?  The red mark has officially popped up on my butt! First my boob, now my butt!! Come on! I mean luckily it is perfectly placed where any bikini will cover it, but I was horrified to see it. UGH!!! The positive side, at least it isn't my belly....yet. EEK!

Sleep:  Sleep has been a bit restless this week. I have been having to stay at the in-laws house and their bed is no where near as soft as our plush pillow top california king. My left shoulder has been starting to ache. Ready to be in my own bed again. Although I do love all the wonderful home cooked dinners. hehe

Best moment this week: The "reach for the sky movement"!!!

Miss Anything? Sushi and Rum. Going to the Caribbean on our babymoon is going to be slight torture.

Movement: Henry and I went camping this weekend for Memorial Day weekend and were laying down at night reading our baby books when Coraline decided to she wanted to have a spaz attack! The movements were on either side of my belly button taking turns raising my stomach in super quick movements. Henry saw it out of the corner of his eye, so we both sat there watching it. I had to keep from giggling because it was so bizarre! Then, all of a sudden, the left side of my stomach just slowly raised a good two inches up!! It was definitely a knee or elbow because it was bony. I started to laugh from the pure craziness and Henry was quick to tell me to stop laughing so he could keep watching her move. She continued on for a few minutes. It was crazy fun to watch! 

Food cravings: It may just be me, but I think this week is strawberries and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I think I have had about 12 PB&J's this week, plus homemade strawberry shortcakes, strawberry jam, strawberries in my cheerios, etc. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: Textures are still making me sick, like couscous, as well as red meat. 

Gender RESULTS: BABY GIRL!!! My gut feeling was right all along! I absolutely can't wait to meet her!

Labor Signs: Too soon

Symptoms: 
One day my ankles and fingers were swollen since it was SUPER HOT one day.
Nosebleeds are back, bad! I wake up and blood almost immediately starts running. Sad.
If I don't take my prenatal vitamin at night, my legs get extremely antsy! It feels like I need to go running they get so antsy. However, if I take my pre-natal within 30 minutes they chill out. I read that it has to do with the iron. Either way, it works.
Movements have changed from individual movements to feeling simultaneous movements in two different spots. Like I will feel something toward my right side up by my ribs, and at the same time another movement on the left side of my belly button. It's the weirdest, yet most wonderful feeling in the world.
The "nesting" has begun with crazy cleaning and organizing.
Disappearing belly button, baby bump, nails and hair growing like weeds, baby movements (the best!) and my boobs have drastically increased, which has lead to the dreaded red-mark, and frequent bathroom visits.
Then my back has begun to break out like a highschool boy going through puberty on steroids. Luckily, I discovered this Naturals Spot Treatment from Neutrogena and it has DRASTICALLY reduced the breakouts and their redness. You just apply it 2-3 times a day and it just pretty much dries everything up and prevents anything new from popping up. YEA BUDDY!
Heartburn has been nipped in the butt thanks to my prescription of Reglan for my paralyzed stomach, that just so happens to be a medication used with gastric reflux. Jackpot twice in a row! This pregnancy thing is a cinch. (so far)

Belly Button in or out? Innie - barely.

Wedding rings on or off? On - However, there was one really hot day (Texas big surprise) where my wedding ring began to get really tight so I moved it to my pinkie for the day. 

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy, Happy!

Looking forward to: Finishing out the nursery and getting back into our house!

Baby Name? Coraline! I love the name!! See WEEK 21 for name details. <3

Thoughts: Just ready to meet Coraline. I love this sweet little lady so much! I wanted a boy so badly when I first got pregnant and now, I wouldn't change having a girl for anything in this world. God definitely has everything happen for a reason. 

**NEW** About the Board:
Board inspiration came from Memorial Day! However, I could not find red chalk, so hot pink it is! Hot Pink, white and blue.
The board was done using fonts from WORD.
Chalkboard Fonts: Harrington and then the rest were free-handed.
Size was a "hot house cucumber" although it looks like a zucchini
This week Henry was out of town all week so his lovely aunt Terri volunteered to take the photo with me, so of course I had to have her jump in the photo with me. <3

**NEW** Pregnancy/Maternity Fashion: 
My lovely fashion for this photo entailed a prenatal tank and prenatal jeans from Motherhood Maternity. Not my favorite store to shop at, but it's the closest one around when you can't wait for shipping.

24 WEEKS & A Tornado. WHAT?!

Gotta love being displaced, greasy, pregnant and tired
from "experiene"ing a tornado. 

How far along? 24 Weeks

Total weight gain? As of the last doctor's appointment I have officially gained 17 lbs. HOLY GUACAMOLE!!! The doctor however says it's fine, that I look great and have a big baby so it's no big deal. Given my boobs have grown drastically, but the baby being 2 lbs now and given the boobs probably 2 lbs MAX - that's TOO much weight by my standards. I don't care what my doctor says. Cue depression. LOL I shouldn't gain more than 30 lbs over the course of the pregnancy and Coraline still has her biggest growth spurts ahead of us. Next appointment is June 3rd so hopefully the weight gain will have slowed down. 

Maternity Clothes? ASOS in the UK is my go-to maternity store! Free shipping, plus free return shipping if it doesn't fit or I don't like it. Sign me up. Not to mention, GREAT prices. All outfits can be worn post maternity too. I am obsessed. I will forever rave about them. I also recently found some cute ones at Old Navy online as well.

Stretch Marks?  Still have the red mark I freaked about on Week 21 & 22. Other than that, looks like I am clear for now. Been applying lotion with Vitamin E and Cocoa Butter religiously every day.

Sleep:  Sleep has been much better since the amazing body pillow as arrived. Coraline seems to be on a regular sleep pattern. She squirms like crazy before bed, then settles down for the night, then around 7 am is up and squirming and rolling around. 

Best moment this week: First Mother's Day! 

Miss Anything? Sushi and Rum - Although I have finally started eating smoked salmon. I have to admit it felt SO GOOD and I don't regret it one bit. Everyone has their opinions on it, but I went for it. Coraline has been fine so far. 

Movement: Yea buddy. I actually felt a ROLL for the first time! Not just a kick or twitch. I felt like something pointy on my upper left side so I set my hand on it, then felt it roooooll down my side to my lower left side. CRAZY FEELING DUDE!! SO CRAZY! It was definitely a knee or elbow. 

Food cravings: Fruit (watermelon) and finally gave up on whole watermelons and settled for getting halves. Haven't had a bad one yet! Go me!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Textures are still making me sick, like couscous, as well as red meat. 

Gender RESULTS: BABY GIRL!!! My gut feeling was right all along! I absolutely can't wait to meet her!

Labor Signs: Too soon

Symptoms: Disappearing belly button, baby bump, nails and hair growing like weeds, baby movements (the best!) and my boobs have drastically increased, which has lead to the dreaded red-mark, and frequent bathroom visits. I am starting to wake up at least twice a night, and it's like I wake up and have to RUN to the bathroom! Bending over is beginning to get difficult, especially to tie my shoes or take my boots off. Then my back has begun to break out like a highschool boy going through puberty on steroids. That bad. Luckily, it is on my upper back and my long hair covers it, but I am praying it goes away before our beach maternity shoot in St. John. 

Belly Button in or out? Innie - barely.

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy, Happy!

Looking forward to: Finishing out the nursery!

Baby Name? Coraline! I love the name!! See WEEK 21 for name details. <3

Thoughts: Henry has been out of town a lot so getting someone to take a picture of the board has been hard. I really don't like calling someone over just to take a photo of me. This week we experienced our first twister! So that only made it more difficult. I am from Houston originally so I have dealt with a hurricane before, but tornados are a whole foreign subject for me. Needless to say, I don't like them one bit. We are currently staying at our in-laws farm. Our ceiling has water damage, needing a new roof, master bedroom windows busted, and we have a community backyard. For the dogs sake, I am worried about nails and broken glass, not to mention the no fence thing, so being at their farm has been heaven for them. However, this called for the board to be in a bit of disarray. It wasn't even until after we had finished the photos that we realized I had completely mis-spelled "Experience" and NO ONE noticed! Henry's sister had come over a few days later and pointed it out to us. Womp Womp. Oh and don't you love the background decor? Deer head, guns on the wall, cedar staircase with christmas garland still on there - LOL City girl really did meet a country boy - or country family. :-P

About the Board:
*This board was inspired by our twister experience. How ironic that Coraline is the size of an ear of corn this week and tornados are always portrayed as going through corn fields??
*Fonts: Harrington
*Due to dim lighting it was hard to tell how bold the board actually was. Wetting the board with a damp cloth (not soaking wet, just damp) helps the chalk go on smoother and bolder.
*Using word to pre-type what you want in fun fonts is a great way to eye-ball what to write, unless you are just freaking amazing at free-style all around. I need something to look at though. :-P

Pregnancy/Maternity Fashion: 
This weeks outfit is rather blah and simple. The flowing top is from ASOS Maternity Line. Leggings are from Motherhood Maternity, and the belt is from a local boutique. I was originally going to wear a black version of the belt, but as I grabbed it off the hook in my closet both clasps literally fell off!! So the nude was what I had to wear, but black was much better. I guess that's what you get when you pay $5. Boo.

Board close-up. 

BOARD BLOOPER

Henry's mom trying to take a photo of us with Henry's iPhone. lol

19 WEEKS

How far along? 19 Weeks

Total weight gain? I have officially gained 10 lbs on the nose. 

Maternity Clothes? Still rocking the Target tank tops I bought, with the belly belt or a big blingy belt to hide my unbuttoned/unzipped pants. haha!

Stretch Marks? None. Thank goodness! I asked my Great Grandma and Mom if they had any from pregnancy and both luckily are stretch mark free. Hope I got those genes!

Sleep: Sleep is GREAT! I have been sleeping like a rock. Usually when Henry get's up I at least acknowledge his movement, but not lately.

Best moment this week: These last two weeks have been AMAZING with me being able to feel movements, then Henry, but this week was pretty awesome too. We got to not only see the baby via our 19 Week Sono, but we also got to SEE movement OUTSIDE my belly! I was sitting at my desk at work and felt some pretty strong "kicks" in the middle of my stomach. I raised my tank top up to see if I could see it and sure enough! There were the little kicks! I yelled over to Henry, "Henry! I can see the kicks! Come look at this!" He thought I was joking and said, "Heather, the baby is only 10 oz, I don't think it would be strong enough to see." I told him to, "Look here!" as I pointed to the exact spot I kept seeing movement and within a second there was a movement. Henry laughed and said, "You did that." "No! No I didn't! Keep looking!" Then immediately there were two more! Then another and another. Henry rolled back in his chair with a huge smile on his face and said, "That is so crazy!! I can't believe we can see the movements!" Then he began searching around the office to find something around 10 oz - which was a 12 oz coke. We were in awe and so excited! We sat there watching my belly and the little flutters, being completely un-productive, until it was lunch time. I am sure our employees thought we were crazy. HAHA

Miss Anything? Take a wild guess.....ALCOHOL! I have also begun to miss Sushi! Salmon and Tuna in particular. 

Movement: YES!! Refer to Week 17 for my first experiences with movements. Then week 18 for Henry's. Also, our baby officially has a gender! Although, we don't find out until week 20 at the Gender Reveal Party! Whoop!

Food cravings: Fruit. Fruit. Oh, and Fruit. Anything lemon is still my addiction and Thai food is my go-to for almost every meal. The Thai sisters at the local restaurant joke that my baby will come out speaking Thai. I literally eat there at least 4 times a week. 

Anything making you queasy or sick: So I have noticed lately when I eat red meat, it makes me sick later. The sight or thought doesn't make me queasy or sick, but EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I eat it, I get nauseous later in the day. Also textures have started to get to me. I can not for the life of me remember what it was this week, but it was something I eat all the time and the moment it touched my tongue I had to spit it out. 

Gender Prediction: I am torn. I have had gut feelings of a baby girl the whole pregnancy, but lately been thinking baby boy. I don't know if those are true feelings or wishful thinking. I want so badly to give my Father-in-law his first true grandson, but Henry does want his little girl and it would be fun to always have someone to go shopping with or get pedicures with. Whichever the gender, I just really pray they aren't picky eaters. We will both be devastated!

Labor Signs: Too soon

Symptoms: Baby bump is the most obvious. The best symptom ever, baby movements! My nails and hair continue to grow like weeds, and my belly button has become extremely shallow, almost level with my belly. It freaks me out. I have always had a tiny, small belly button and now it's huge! Not the most attractive feature I can tell you that!

Belly Button in or out? Innie - barely.

Wedding rings on or off? On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Extremely on edge happy to find out the baby gender!

Looking forward to: Reveal Party and more baby movements!!!

Baby Names? Still have to be Henry the 3rd for a boy. Ok Adaleine, the one we thought we were settled on has officially been scratched off the list. No way, Jose. We are torn between Hayden and Coraline. Why do girl names have to be so difficult?

Thoughts: I really can't think of anything other than the reveal party!!! I can barely sleep at night because I am soooo excited! 

**NEW** About the Board: I always use Crayolas Sidewalk Chalk for big lettering, then Staples brand writing chalk for finer lettering or outlining. Plus, sidewalk chalk has SO MANY COLORS! I did go buy Walmarts brand of finer chalk since it had more color options for this weeks board.  I wet the board down with a damp rag, and then write away. It makes the colors go on bolder/thicker when it's a bit wet.

I chose to alternate between blue and pink since it is Gender Reveal Week!

Then when editing I increase the "saturation" to make the colors even more bold.

The fonts this week are: Academy Engraved LET and Harrington.

I pull up word, type what I want in the fonts chosen, then eyeball it onto the chalkboard. :-)

**NEW** Pregnancy/Maternity Fashion: I am wearing colored Skinnies from Express with a belly belt (I would highly recommend investing in one of these), then an actual maternity tank from Motherhood Maternity.

Target tank top with the big blingy Ariat belt to hide the unzipped and unbottoned pants. Yea buddy!

DIY Photo Ledge Wall

The Hubby and I recently rearranged our living room. This left a large empty wall behind our couches where our once small entertainment center sat. I have seen all over Pinterest these photo walls and photo ledge walls.

The photo ledge walls were very appealing due to the minimal holes drilled into the walls. Less holes = fewer patches if you decide to sell = no matching paint. Which the previous owner did and it did not turn out well. 

I was shopping around various sites and those ledges are not cheap! Either they are not cheap or have horrible reviews, and I am all about reviews!! 

Target - One ledge had a decent price, but horrible reviews. The other ledge looked good, but was pricier and no reviews.

Pottery Barn - They have the Holman ledge, which I am sure this will be no shocker, they were pricey. $35-$55 for one ledge. Not to mention I had bought their wine bottle and wine glass shelves earlier this year and I swore I would NEVER buy shelves from them again. Their anchors are the most destructive anchors I have ever encountered. Let's just say if you screw up, too damn bad, or you have to saw out a good 4" circle to get it out of your wall. And their templates are obviously just preprinted and not necessarily checked for accuracy with the shelf it is shipped with. Can you sense my hostility?

The Container Store - Their Tchotchke shelves had almost great reviews, and the price was decent.  $28-$38. 

Still, I wanted something cheaper. Not to mention, when you say $38 it doesn't sound too bad, but when you need 4 or 5 of them that is a whopping $152- $190 before tax. Don't forget you have to buy frames too if not already in your possession. So, when I stumbled upon Be Simply Organized I was squealing with joy! DIY Photo Ledge for about $10/ledge. Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma'am! Sign me up! 

I plan to make a trip to Home Depot tomorrow to buy the necessary supplies. Hope to have them up and running by next weekend, so stay tuned!

Alana XOXO

All photos from Pinterest

Wedding Inspired Wednesday {No. 15}: Mason Jars

Our "Country Boy Meets City Girl" themed wedding involves a lot of mason jars. Luckily, living in Texas there is an abundance of mason jars and we were able to obtain A TON of FREE mason jars from a local peach orchard that had retired - my fiance's aunt was his friend and heard he was going to just throw away all those fabulous mason jars. She remembered me and was able to bring me out there to load them all up and take them off his hands. Sweet!

I like this idea! Especially for those few mason jars that are plain without the vintage writing on them already.

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This eclectic mix of mason jars wrapped in twine, bows of raffia, or just filled with cotton/twigs is perfection to me.

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I love the simplicity of this - wild flowers with various candles, rustic horseshoes, wooden base, burlap table clothes - Perfect for a rustic outdoor wedding.

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Now this was found completely separate from the above post, but again would be a good idea for mason jars - especially those small mason jars that you could easily use for single blooms. Another idea, mix food coloring with mod-podge and you get a simple translucent stain, perfect for any color you need! Then add tea-light candles!

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Simple twine to dress up mason jars.

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This is my FAVORITE of all centerpieces - the mason jars with jute ribbon or burlap, held together with twine or raffia, topped off with that main focal piece with cotton and wheat - Oh, la, la!

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You could take this idea with the suggestion above - if you didn't color the candle itself, again use the idea of mod podge + food coloring to add the colorful glow to your homemade mason jar candle!

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Do I even need to explain this picture!?

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Great way to decorate the isle or walk-way - you could even take this off the shepherd hook and hang from tree branches or wooden beams from the ceiling with clear fishing line. It would be very magical.

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So many ideas!!! As the wedding gets closer, I am finding it harder and harder to narrow down all these inspirations to figure out what I want to actually do! Tomorrow I head to Canton with the in-laws for my future MIL's birthday. Hoping I can find further inspiration there on ways to dress up mason jars in a rustic way. :-) Main goal for Canton - 150 horseshoes. Yes - ONE-HUNDRED-FIFTY. I can't wait to blog this idea!