My second trimester was pretty glorious. If only I truly appreciated it more at the time! (Third trimester, so far, has come with some different troubles & feelings!).

Pregnancy favorites

Reads: I started reading Brain Rules for Baby, which covers some cool stuff about how the baby brain develops and how to help optimize it for a happy, smart child. We also started skimming through the best baby book ever, the Baby Owner's Manual, which treats "operating your baby" like operating a new technology.

Style: Dressing while pregnant is way more fun when your belly is starting to pop out a bit! It wasn't so fun when I just felt like I'd eaten a big sandwich for lunch. I tried not to buy too many maternity items, but I got a few staples from Gap (like these pants and this shirt), that have lasted me awhile. I also received the NICEST GIFT IN THE WORLD from an old high school friend, a comfy and cute black Storq t-shirt dress. I've been wearing it obsessively. Another great purch was this pair of Allbird sneakers! Made from wool, you don't need socks, super flexible and cute...they've even taken me into the 3rd trimester and all of it's puffy-foot glory. 

Beauty: I've been keeping up with a very basic, all natural beauty/skin routine. I will admit that pregnancy-skin ain't so bad! To keep things going in the right direction I've been using a lot of nice oils, including this rose hip oil which I use on my face and neck at night. 

Other:
I grabbed some wonderful, locally made lavender all-purpose spray while in Seattle and have been loving it, especially since my sense of smell was TOO good in the 2nd trimester. It was nice to give everything a little scent-cover of relaxing lavender :). (comparable spray here).

Tums. 'nuff said.

Earth Mama Angel Baby teas! I had not one but two beautiful girlfriends gift me with variations of these pregnancy/mama teas and I've been loving them! 

Using Babylist for our registry was the best decision ever. You can shop from all over the interwebs and bring everything into one convenient place. I also loved their example registries to check out, and had a couple of good experiences with their customer service as well. Highly recommended!

Symptoms

Heartburn: My heartburn/acid reflux kicked in even worse than it had been in 1st trimester. I've tried everything I tell you! What seems to help best is having cereal or ice cream before bed...so I rolled with it ;).

Emotions: I experienced a whirlwind of emotions in the second trimester. Primarily, strong emotions of gratitude and awe! I just felt so embraced by my community and friends, and in awe of my body and baby, and so grateful for everything. And then a few anxious moments would hit out of nowhere and have me in tears. But even the tears kinda felt good. So yes, hormones were at work a bit.

Insomnia: I started being a bit less comfortable in bed, and staying up late with a million thoughts in my mind, or waking up early and unable to fall back asleep. They say it's your body trying to prep you for the sleepless nights ahead. Oh thanks, body! I appreciate that so much....

Cramps: Round ligament and sciatic pains, and occasional cramps...ouch. Symptoms of a growing tummy!

Cravings & Aversions

Cravings = Food in general. I didn't have too many cravings in the 2nd trimester, but I had a few phases where I was just famished all the time!  I also really was craving sweet things all the time...fruit, candy, fruit juice, you name it. Oh and especially cereal (still, and forever).

Aversions = Still not into vegetables, especially salad, and cooked greens like spinach, broccoli, etc. (usually my favorites!). I ate a lot of raw peppers and carrots to try to get some veggies in! The weirdest part is that I'd think it sounds yummy and it would make it all the way to my plate...and then I would just leave it there. Good enough to come close, but not all the way into my mouth. I also developed an aversion to most egg things. And avocados!! WTF? So strange that some of my favorite things have made it into this category...

Memorable Moments

It's a GIRL! As long as I live, I'll never forget the moment that the pink confetti sprayed out from that balloon. (check out the gender reveal story here!).

Feeling her move. She started getting really roly poly in there at one point, and it has been my absolute favorite part of pregnancy. Whenever she moves I can't help but look down and put my hand on my tummy and embrace the moment. She's a real person in there, guys!!

The kindness of strangers. I had so many wonderful moments of strangers chatting with me kindly about motherhood, offering advice (only some of it annoying), or offering me help in some way.

That about covers it! I'm currently at 35 weeks, sooo, way into my third trimester! 5 weeks til the due date, WHAT?! We're in shock over here a bit. But also incredibly excited :).

A Babymoon

What a couple of weeks it's been! 

All of a sudden a lot is hitting me all at once. We are going to be parents (don't worry this wasn't new, this has hit me on and off since we found out we were having a baby!). We will be taking this little girl home. Forever! She could be here soon. We need to get ready! We need a name. 

Also smacking me in the face lately? Exhaustion. So are aches and pains, and foot swelling, and Heartburn (with a capital H). 

Oh and work. I need to get ready for maternity leave, I need to leave my work and my team in a good place! I've been working around the clock to get things to that place. Oh and wedding! Wouldn't it be great to have all of the "big stuff" planned before baby comes? Photography, catering, guest list oh my...

Needless to say, a break was needed. 

Everyone says to make sure to spend a lot of quality time with your love before the baby comes, and I've gotta say that we've been acing that assignment. I don't think Jimmy and I have ever been so in sync. We've been making time for each other and squeezing "dates" in amid the chaos. But to put the icing on the cake, we decided we need to truly get away and do a "baby moon". 

We used a work trip of mine (to Seattle) as an excuse to pick Washington as our destination, and snuck off to a quiet cottage on Orcas Island.  Our visit consisted of ocean views, relaxed mornings on the deck, wildlife sightings and ice cream. Lots of ice cream. 

Thank you, tiny island for providing your adorable tiny-home away from our tiny home! It's just what we needed.

Tiny Time Capsule

One of the reasons I love keeping a blog is to save memories - a record of life - in a 

minimalist way that doesn't require any space or clutter.  This tiny time capsule series is where 

I'll record thoughts, feelings and favorites about the current moment.

L.A.

I was in LA for a quick work visit this weekend and had such a lovely time! That city is growing on me. Favorite stops included the Detox Market where I stocked up on some amazing new organic beauty materials, Gracias Madre where I enjoyed the most delicious Mexican lunch I can remember, and Wasteland where I snagged a couple of comfy, inexpensive shirts (that will work for during and after pregnancy!). 

Nesting Mode

It's kicking in hard, and I'm rolling with it. All I want to do lately is tidy and beautify the tiny house. We definitely still have some questions up in the air about how to use the space in the best way to accommodate little Figgy...but we've been doing a lot of minimizing (it never ends!) to make room for her things.

Flowers

I recently realized that instead of hinting continuously to Jim that I like getting flowers sometimes,  I could just get them for myself. Duh. Having fresh flowers around has been making me so happy, especially as the weather turns towards spring! I'd love to make it a  regular habit to get to my local Saturday farmers market to grab a lovely bouquet for the week.

Bloom Retreat

A friend at work referred me to a local haven for mommas and mommas-to-be called Bloom Retreat, and I love it! I had my first prenatal massage there last week, and I plan to go back for my first acupuncture experience soon. I'm also looking forward to attending one of their ongoing Doula Community meet ups - hoping to find my doula there :). 

I hope everyone is enjoying a glorious spring day!

Pregnancy Post: The First Trimester

My first trimester already seems so long ago! I'm already at 25 weeks and little Figgy is apparently the size of an acorn squash. I have honestly loved being pregnant and I want to be able to remember all of the fun (and less than fun) details, so I thought it would be fun to recap some memories here. Here's a glimpse at my first trimester!

Symptoms

Nausea. I honestly got really lucky here, and never had to run to the bathroom sick, but I certainly didn't miss out on the infamous "morning sickness" completely (which as you've probably heard or experienced by now, is certainly not just a morning thing!). There were many occasions, especially when in the car, when I was overcome by nausea and had to lie down. Christmas day in particular, I remember driving down Route 1 and enjoying the beautiful curvy drive much less than normal!

Exhaustion. I do not know how folks have 2 babes (though I guess I might see for myself one day), because my only saving grace during the first few months was that I let myself lie down whenever I needed to, i.e. all the time.  For a few months there I relished the early darkness and rainy days and would be in my bed as early as possible, literally at 7:30pm or so on some nights.

Sore boobs. This was my first sign of pregnancy - the sensitivity was intense!! Seriously a brush against them felt like a punch on some days. Noticing this symptom early is what encouraged me to go ahead and take a pregnancy test.

Dizziness. Holy head rush. I never quite got used to how slooowwwly I needed to get up from a seated position to avoid a crazy dizzy spell!

Bad cold. At Thanksgiving I had an awful cold that just didn't seem to go away, and I totally blame Figgy for this one! ;)

Cravings

Flavored soda water, especially La Croix. I DOWNED this stuff. So many fun flavors!

Green freeze from Pressed Juicery. Oh my gosh yum. I loved the tart, healthy, sweetness of this sweet treat. If you haven't had your hands on one yet, you've gotta try it. Does anyone know of a juicery besides Pressed that offers their juice up in frozen form? Can't complain about a frozen treat that provides some green in your diet! 

Food in general. I was just straight up hungry, all day erry day.

Tart, fruity candy. In particular I loved starburst and tangy things like sour peaches. I also polished off a whole bag of old-school jelly beans one week (very different than jelly bellys!) with the help of Jim. I think that was a few weeks after Figgy was the size of a jelly bean and that "suggestion" from my pregnancy app made think of jelly beans every day until we had some.

Poptarts. I'm pretty sure that the magic of suggestive thinking was to blame here as well, because a friend of mine told me that she had craved poptarts during pregnancy, and voilá - that's all I wanted.

Cereal. I didn't eat cereal for years, and suddenly it's all I want (that one has been lasting the whole pregnancy!).

Aversions

Cooking, especially meat. And eggs. But if someone else cooked them I was happy to partake.

Vegetables. What a bummer! I usually love my veggies, and of course I wanted to be eating more than ever to feed Figgy her nutrients, but I just hated the sight of them. Especially ones like broccoli and brussel sprouts (usually favorites). So odd.

Pregnancy favorites:

Reads: I enjoyed browsing through Bringing Up Bébé, What to Expect when You're Expecting, and Expecting More.

Podcasts/Apps: I became obsessed with birth stories for awhile there and found a bunch to listen to on the Pregtastic podcast. And the Sprout app has been my favorite pregnancy app - it has great updates on Figgy's development and I love the visuals. 

Style: When I started popping out a bit but was still fitting into my regular clothes, I found myself wearing my favorite aztec scarf (similar to the one pictured above) on many days because it kept me cozy when I wasn't feeling well, and could be draped in a position to cover my tummy-pudge. Towards the end of first trimester I started wearing my leggings a lot, and using the "hair tie trick" to keep my buttoned pants together without having to fasten the button ;). (See me for more info on the hair tie trick...).

Beauty: I've been religiously using my Bio Oil to help prevent stretch marks. It has worked wonders in the past on scars so I have high hopes! It's also a delicious treat to use L'Occitane's almond milk concentrate. It's smooth and luxurious and super moisturizing. 

Other: I have been chugging water even more than normal during pregnancy, so my Nalgene bottle is a fave!

Exercise

Not much. I put exercise on hold for the most part due to exhaustion, but I did manage a few good yoga classes and walks around the trails nearby.

Memorable Moments

Finding out and telling Jimmy (which I dive into a bit here).

The first ultrasound. Watching the cute little heartbeat flutter and thinking, this is real!

Telling the grandparents. We were lucky to have pre-planned a trip to NJ to visit Jimmy's mom just a week after we found out, so we were pumped to tell her in person. I caught it on video and I'll love looking back at that moment :). On the same day, we FaceTimed with my parents and told them they would be grandparents (Figgy is the first grandchild on both sides). I screenshotted a few moments from that conversation and have looked back at them multiple times already, it's so fun seeing the emotion and excitement in their eyes!

The second ultrasound. Even though she looked less like a baby, and more like a little turd (it's true, she really did), it was so fun to see her moving and twisting all around! It was also wonderful to have Jimmy there for this one. His eyes lit up when he saw her appear in there. 

I'm only a few weeks away from the third trimester, so, more pregnancy faves to come!

A Tiny Adventure is Coming...

I've got a little announcement to make.......

Jimmy and I are expecting our first bambino this coming July!

We are over the moon excited. 

And I cannot believe I'm over 19 weeks already - whaaatt? Where does time go? It seems like just yesterday that we found out. Jimmy was working on the house and I had gone back to the cottage (our previous home) to pick up a few things. I decided to grab a pregnancy test on the way (I was about a week late). It was literally the WEEK that the tiny-house rolled onto the property (talk about a big week in the Rowe-Ladio household!!) and Jim was working on leveling and raising the house. I took the test on my own in the quiet cottage, and I will never forget seeing those two bright pink lines. The drive and then walk to the tiny-house were the longest of my life as I waited to share the news with Jim. I was kind of freaking out -- a huge ball of nerves! When I got to him he started talking to me about tiny-house logistics but I must have had some crazy look on my face because he stopped mid-sentence and said "what's wrong?". I looked at him with my wide-eyes and somehow he saw the truth on my face, I didn't even have to say a word (he knew I was planning to take a test sometime soon but didn't know exactly when). He just said "REALLY!?" and I nodded and immediately burst into big happy/shocked/omg tears. He hugged me tight and told me about how wonderful it was going to be.

Here are some fuzzy iphone selfies we snapped right after I broke the news:

We have been overwhelmed with all of the happiness and support our family and community has shown.

People have also shown a lot of curiosity about how we're going to fit a baby into our 275 sq-foot house on wheels! We're definitely going to have to get creative about that but we're excited to make it work. We'll be sure to share as we go along!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!


P.S. Gender reveal photos to come SOON.

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Photo creds go to my beautiful friend Alexa.