I’ve been getting the itch to start sharing more personal posts on the blog — even if they aren’t necessarily money-related. I waffled on whether to post these here because I know that anytime I consistently post non-money-related posts, some people get annoyed by it and are very vocal about that.
However, I also know I’ve heard from many of you that you miss me sharing more of my life online (I do a LOT of life-sharing on Instagram so it feels like I share a lot of our life… but then I remember that not everyone follows my stories there so it probably does seem like I don’t share as much as I used to because I’ve been sharing it more on stories than on the blog!)
After a lot of thought, I decided that I would just go with my gut and begin sharing a regular weekly post here on the blog that’s part pregnancy update, part peek into our lives, part whatever else I want to share. If you’re not into these types of posts, you can just skip right on by on the weekends, no hard feelings at all! I truly mean that!
Pregnancy Update
9 Weeks! We’re almost to double digits which means we’re getting ever and ever closer to the second trimester and a little less (hopefully!) morning, noon, and night sickness. (Missed my 8-week pregnancy update? See it here.)
HIGHLIGHTS: 1) Getting 9+ hours of sleep cumulatively on Tuesday night while I was staying alone in a hotel in Austin. (I rarely sleep well when I’m by myself in a hotel, but I guess I was so tired that I just slept and slept and slept. It was completely unexpected and totally amazing! 1) I felt well enough for an hour one morning this week that I actually made scrambled eggs and was able to eat them (I usually can’t go near anything related to food prep!)
NOTABLE THIS WEEK: I discovered that when I get more sleep, I don’t feel as sick. I didn’t realize how much nausea and tiredness were connected for me, so this was very helpful to discover. Also, I ordered a cast iron pan from Amazon (thanks to all of your recommendations!) and am hoping maybe it will help with my anemia. I’m still very out of breath and dragging much of the time, but I’m hopeful that eating as many iron-rich foods as I can stomach, a double iron supplement, extra Vitamin C when I have iron, and the cast iron pan will help my levels to improve before I’m tested in a week and a half again.
CRAVINGS: This week, much of the time, I struggled more to find things to eat that I felt would stay down. I did have cravings for carrots and dip one day — which was pretty exciting seeing as I have no wanted to go near a vegetable! And late one night, I had a desperate craving for Sonic tater tots. Jesse — kind and amazing husband that he is — went out and got me some at 10:45 p.m. at night!
WEIGHT GAIN: 3 pounds! My weight didn’t go up this week, but I feel like my “baby bump” got a little more pronounced and I’m starting to reach more and more for stretching pants and roomier tops. It will be interesting to see when I actually begin wearing maternity clothes. It was around 17-20 weeks with my other three, but I have a feeling it’s going to be sooner this time around!
(By the way, someone messaged me on Facebook last week to tell me that my “baby bump” was not, in fact, anything to do with a baby and was just all bloat. I had to laugh because, while some of it is likely some pregnancy-related bloat, since there’s a baby in there, we get to call it a “baby bump” regardless of what is causing it! :))
NOTE: I’ve never done weekly pregnancy or regular belly shots in the past before. I decided to do it this time because I wish I had documented my pregnancies better in the past. I plan to post these on Saturday each week.
If you are sensitive to these types of post because of loss or infertility, I wanted you to know so you can avoid checking my blog/social media on those days. I don’t know that I’ll ever get to experience pregnancy again, so I’m documenting this primarily for myself and this child (Lord-willing! To get to read someday). I also know that a number of you have begged for me to share pregnancy updates, so if this if your thing, you can enjoy these posts each weekend.
A Peek Into Our Week
I flew to Austin, TX on Tuesday for an SEO training with Everything Digital Marketing. Meg, who is our Director of Content Strategy, was able to attend, as well. (She is spearheading all of the changes we’re working on making for SEO on our site.)
The event was SO good and she and I came away excited and energized about how to organize all of our old content plus how to create better content for you all in the future.
Believe it or not, we’ve never really done much of anything with SEO in the past, so we have been working hard to learn everything we can and figure out how to implement it. Since we have thousands of posts in the archives, it’s a pretty mammoth task, but we’re working on learning and formulating a plan so we can serve you all better.
I got back on Wednesday late afternoon — just in time to head to the roller skating rink with our youth group (Jesse and I are both serving as small group co-leaders for our church youth group this year. It’s been a blast!)
One of the boys severely broke his wrist during the evening, so Jesse and I ended up spending some of the evening driving him to the ER to meet his parents and get medical attention. He was such a brave kid and I can’t even imagine how much pain he was in.
We got back just in time for the group picture. Can you spot me?? 🙂
We ended up taking Kaitlynn to Urgent Care, too, because her wrist was hurting her after she hit the wall really hard. Gratefully, she just had a bad sprain.
I guess it’s good that I had decided ahead of time not to skate! Yikes!
What I’m…
Reading right now: The Choosing
Watching right now: Three Identical Strangers
Listening to right now: Michael Buble Christmas (don’t judge! It made me happy when I was feeling yucky today!)
Loving right now: Preggi Pop Drops
In Case You Missed It:
