Bump Update - 24 Weeks

Weeks Pregnant: 24 weeks + 1 day

Baby Size: A little over a pound and as long as an ear of corn. And, according to BabyCenter, my uterus is about the size of a soccer ball at this point.

Gender: BOY

Name: Finn Aloysius Laskowski <3

Weight Gain: 11 lbs. I was only at a 6 lb. gain 2 weeks ago, meaning I gained the other 5 in just two weeks. Our little human sure is growing quick!

Symptoms: Super aching lower back, but bouncing on a stability ball and stretching do wonders for the discomfort! Branch-like veins up my torso and chest are more and more visible each day. No swelling or aches anywhere else though (yet!). No signs of any stretch-marks yet, but I continue to drink A LOT of water and slather on the coconut oil.

Attire: A few maternity tops and some pants for work, but I continue to wear my regular clothes (with the help of extenders for my jeans) and essentially live in leggings and baggy t-shirts when at home.  I tend to get charlie-horses pretty often so having a bit of a heel helps, so wedges or sneakers are my go-to's for shoes!

Exercise: Yoga, stretching, and walking as much as possible. The breathing techniques in yoga are just so relaxing and comforting, I know that continuing with it will be beneficial for when I'm in labor. I also love Suzanne Bowen's Slim&Toned Prenatal Barre workout DVD...it's very low impact but don't let that fool you, I'm out of breath after the first few minutes! This isn't really a workout, but like I said earlier I tend to bounce and rock on a stability ball a lot when at home and in our living room. It feels so wonderful on my hips and lower back!

Movement: SO much movement! I absolutely love feeling him move around in me. My belly takes on multiple shapes in a matter of minutes these days. :) I feel him the most first thing in the morning (such a beautiful way to start my day) and late at night when trying to fall asleep. After a good stretch or yoga session he tends to go crazy in there as well!

Missing: Honestly, I'm really not missing too much of anything. Of course I'd like an occasional glass of wine, but not that badly. Inversions in yoga are starting to be a challenge so forearm and handstands I do kind of miss, but headstands I still feel pretty comfortable in!

Cravings: Still just want as much fresh fruit as possible! But nothing out of the ordinary or anything that I crave excessively.

Sleep: I love it...but can't seem to sleep through the night at all anymore. I wake up quite a few times due to the discomfort in whatever position I'm in. I make an effort to sleep on my left side, but tend to wake up in a pretzel or halfway on my belly which I know is not that great. Hopefully I get it figured out soon!

Easy Beauty Treatments: At Home

There really isn't anything better than a little pampering to make you feel all refreshed and rejuvenated. Unfortunately, regular trips to the spa for facials and treatments to get such a feeling just isn't in the cards for many of us, myself being one! I've always been a DIY-er, not saying that things always turn out the way I want (I have an extensive list of Pinterest and DIY fails), but I'm always willing to give things a whirl. Not only are these at-home beauty treatments absolutely WONDERFUL, but they are essentially fail-proof. Not to mention the ingredients can be found amongst things you already have stocked in your kitchen. Since there's nothing but dust and chaos from the construction going on at our house, I headed to my mama's and recruited her to test this goodness out with me!

Cocoa & Coffee Facial

The first thing we jumped into was making this face mask consisting of coffee and cocoa. Apparently these two ingredients are quite the dynamic duo. Not only do they brighten your skin and give you a glow, but this particular mask is supposed to decrease puffiness as well. We added an egg white to this recipe which helps to tighten skin and minimize pores, and used goats milk instead of yogurt because of its' calming and nourishing benefits. What to do:

-4 Tbsp. ground coffee: anything that's finely ground will work, so ground up espresso beans, instant coffee, etc.

-4 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder

-2 Tbsp. honey: all natural is best!

-8 Tbsp. dairy: This could be unflavored yogurt, whole milk, almond milk,

coconut milk, or as we used, goats milk! Obviously the yogurt will provide you with a thicker consistency though.

-1 egg white: remember this is optional, but based on our experience I highly

recommend adding it!

Now throw it all in a bowl and mix it up good! (We warmed ours up in the microwave for 15 seconds just for a little added "ooooh" when we slathered it on our faces).

This is what you'll end up getting if you do everything the exact same as us. Consistency was somewhat runny and it smelled like cake...therefore it took every ounce of resistance from my pregnant, hungry self to not take a spoon and dig in!

We just used our hands and slathered it on while over the sink. Make sure you have clean skin before applying! We left the mask on for about 20 minutes, you'll notice it dries on your face pretty quickly and you'll get an instant "tightening" sensation from the egg whites too! When you're ready to take it off, make sure you use a warm washcloth and pat your skin as opposed to rubbing, otherwise the coffee grounds will serve as an exfoliator and you might end up with redness.

Results:

Ohh yes, everything it was supposed to do. My 25 year-old skin and my mama's 50 year-old skin (sorry for the age call-out mum) both felt and looked wonderful once we took this puppy off. Not only was our skin super smooth, but we got that brightening effect and had less noticeable pores/fine lines! Success!

Essential Oil Sugar Scrub

In the midst of hanging out with cake on our face we decided to start on some good ole' scrubs. The first is an essential oil scrub, which means you can tailor this recipe to use any of your favorites (just make sure the essential oil is pure as to not irritate skin)! What you'll need:

-1 1/2 Cups raw sugar

-1 1/2 Cups pure granulated cane sugar

-1 Cup + 2 Tbsp. soybean oil

-10+ drops essential oil: Try not to go overboard, but you can add as little or as many drops of the essential oil as you'd like! We made 2 batches and put 10 drops of Lavender-TeaTree oil in one, and 10 drops of Lemongrass oil in the other.

Now mix it all up and enjoy! My hands now feel like silk, really.

Brown Sugar & Vanilla Scrub

Just like the cocoa-coffee mask, it again took every bit of willpower in me not to eat this.

 -2 Cups brown sugar

-1 Cup pure granulated cane sugar

-1 Cup soybean oil

-1 Tbsp vanilla extract

Again, mix it all up and dig in (with your hands, not mouth). Just as a side note, each of these scrub recipes filled about three 8 oz. jelly jars, so share some with friends and family or stuff in one big container for yourself!

That was it for our self-pampering today. But keep an eye out for more at-home beauty goods and ideas!  My mom makes killer soy candles and all natural soaps as well so I'll eventually be putting a link on here as to how you can get your hands on those!

  

Pregnancy Up Until Now (22 Weeks)

Today we are already a couple of days past 22 weeks pregnant...when did this happen? At this rate, I feel as though I'll blink and already be snuggling our precious little human! As much as I cannot wait for those moments, I truly am trying to embrace and cherish every little second of this pregnancy. After all, you're only pregnant for the first time once. We plan on having at least a couple more children and I know each pregnancy will bring different experiences, but, as I said, you're only pregnant for the first time one time. Which means experiencing those flutters in your belly for the first time ever, knowing what it's like to have boobs 3x their normal size and looking like road maps from the extra blood supply for the first time, being terrified due to not knowing the difference between growing pains and "trouble" pains, making the mistake of YouTube'ing natural births, seeing your husband's face when he realizes there really is a human in there, receiving endless compliments and love from complete strangers, walking up a small set of stairs and then having to take a knee due to fatigue, experiencing a legit rollercoaster of emotions for the first time, and just...ah, so many more firsts. I know there are an abundance of more firsts to come, but here are some of my experiences so far:

Trimester 1

It sounds strange, but I really did know I was pregnant as soon as it happened (no, this is not a First Response ad). My body just felt...different. Here it is, Labor Day weekend, and I'm already fixing myself NA Bloody Mary's and emptying beer cans only to fill them back up with water because of my pregnancy hunch. We were spending the weekend with my in-laws and surely they would have suspected something had I not had beverage-in-hand. Fifteen days and 12 pregnancy tests later, it was a sure thing. My husband and I were over-joyed. Well, there actually isn't a word in existence to even remotely describe how we felt. The first month or so I was feeling great, it was pure bliss. I was still exercising and practicing yoga on a daily basis and had a ton of energy, we even made it out to Colorado for a visit with friends and hiked in the glorious Colorado mountains. Fast forward a few more weeks...what happened. From the moment I woke up to the moment I fell asleep I felt as though I had the world's worst hangover. Never did I vomit (surely I probably would have liked to for some relief), but was nauseated beyond belief. I had so many food aversions I ended up losing a little bit of weight, and with ZERO energy I was not exercising/yoga'ing like usual. I was, however, beginning to feel a 'bloated' sensation. There was an endless supply of saltine crackers on my desk and I was slamming water and orange juice to get an ounce of relief. My doctor finally prescribed me some Zofran for the nausea which only helped for a couple of hours at most, so I stopped taking that. We also discovered that I had quite the Vitamin D deficiency, so I began taking 4,000 IU of D a day in addition to my prenatal. I absolutely tried staying as positive as possible and was still overjoyed to think of the miracle that was occurring in my body, but holy Hannah! What made it even more challenging was getting through the day feeling like I did and not being able to tell anyone about it (our immediate family knew early on but we didn't begin telling others until about 10+ weeks or so). As the 2nd trimester neared closer and closer, each week began getting better. I'd only be nauseated once every three days or so instead of daily, and I was actually starting to gain a little weight. Here is a photo of me at 10 weeks thinking that a teeny bump was emerging ( I think I was hallucinating).

Trimester 2

We made it!! That's all I could think. Now I was "free" to tell whomever I wanted of this miracle inside of me. Just like many women, I was sucked into the notion that telling anyone before the 2nd trimester was not a good idea. My advice now...tell anyone you want and as soon as you want to. I think it would have been much easier getting through those nauseated times if more family/friends knew of our little secret. Anyway, things were going fantastic. The only strange thing to happen this trimester thus far was the nosebleeds (and I mean gushing) on a daily basis...but I'd take that over nausea any day. I began experiencing more of those tear-worthy firsts I mentioned earlier and was actually starting to get a bump! Though, it wasn't noticeable until around 15-16 weeks. My energy finally came back enough to where I was able to exercise and practice yoga regularly again at around that time as well. I began feeling flutters at around 17 weeks and we found out that our little human is a BOY at our 18 week ultrasound (he was not shy).

 Four weeks later and I have quite the noticeable bump. Now, I am feeling more "punches and kicks" as opposed to flutters. I still exercise regularly (but not intensely by any means); however, I'd be fooling you if I didn't say I was in bed by about 8:30-9 o'clock each night. My appetite is in full swing and I am totally soaking up the compliments and congratulatory remarks from strangers!

At 22 Weeks:

Sex: It's a boy!

Appetite: Oh it's there.

Cravings: Anything refreshing: fruit, olives, pickles, orange juice.

Weight Gain: 6 lbs

Energy: Good! But...getting as many Z's as possible.

Mood: Happiness. 

Exercise: Mostly yoga and stretching.

Sleep: Getting it. Starting to get a little uncomfortable unless in certain positions.

Nursery: House is under construction, but John is working hard at getting it done so I can get my eager fingers on that room!

Body: Skin/hair/nails all great for the first time ever. Belly is a stretchin'.

Stretch Marks: None. But boy am I vein-y...looks like branches coming up from my lower region!

Creams: Nothing special, I slather on coconut oil daily.

Renovations + Pregnancy

John and I have lived in our humble abode for a little over 7 years now. I must say, it is quite the charming home. I've always been one for character and a little history when it comes to houses and definitely not the sleek/modern type, though there's plenty of beauty in those kinds of homes too. For the longest time John and I discussed moving and possibly building new after we got hitched. However, in bringing it up multiple times post-wedding, we just couldn't fathom the thought of leaving the place we built our lives into! We have a beautiful yard with lots of trees and acreage which is wonderful for our animals and a growing family, not to mention a pleasant neighborhood that's in close proximity to both of our families. With all this goodness, we decided that staying here for as long as possible (I mean, lifers) and renovating was the best decision for us.

We had put a lot of work into it already to make it as cozy and 'us' as possible these past 7 years...but there is still a lot of work to be done. As I had said, our home is quite charming, but quite old. With old homes comes the closed-off rooms, coved ceilings, narrow hallways, ancient wiring/electrical work, plaster walls....you get the point. With the arrival of our sweet, sweet boy fast approaching, we knew we had to get going on the renovations ASAP to avoid chaos and dust with a newbie in the house (plus, we all know it would be impossible to sustain motivation to work on a house when there's a perfectly good baby around to snuggle). With that being said, the wrecking bars and hammers were brought out and walls began crumbling down. My husband, being the do-everything-himself type of man, is currently doing just that....almost everything himself, with the help of family and yours truly of course (I'm hormonal and sometimes taking a hammer to a wall just does a little something for me). The first thing we wanted to accomplish was making our first level more of an "open" floor plan where we can see the kitchen from the living room, and getting rid of those dreadful coved ceilings that just make your home look so teeny and broken up. John has also re-wired and installed some lighting in our living room so far (our living room has only been lit by lamps in the past). The ultimate plan is to add a master suite off of the back of our house once first-floor renovations are complete.

With both of us working full-time throughout the week and appreciating our mellow time in the evenings, that left only weekends open for renovation work. Working only on the weekends has made things pretty challenging for us, especially since we decided to begin this project during the holidays. Add family gatherings, work events, and other pre-planned functions to the mix and we've only had approximately 3 weekends since the end of November to get things accomplished with the house. Half of our home is blocked off with plastic to keep dust from getting everywhere and we're living primarily in our room upstairs and in the basement for the time being.  It hasn't felt the coziest in our home these past couple months, to say the least. I mean, during Christmas time I did have a faint view through the plastic 'walls' of our Christmas tree, complete with an inch of dust piled on top of each ornament. I haven't been able to get my desperate hands on the nursery either as it's part of the first-floor renovations, and ohhhh is that killing me. I feel like we have made so much progress, but oh, is there so much yet to do. We've got engineered wood beams coming in next week and some dry-walling will also begin...and next up, tearing down our entire kitchen! Some may say renovating while expecting is stressful and far from a good idea, but I say it's simply putting my "bendy-ness" and ability to live flexibly (literally) to the test. :) The photo below is me and baby in his empty nursery that's going to get all new walls, ceiling, lights, etc.. I will be posting renovation photos and progress as we go along!