Welcome to my weekly life update where I share about my pregnancy & give you a peek into our life this past week. If you want to follow a lot more behind-the-scenes and real-time updates every week, be sure to follow my stories and posts on Instagram.
I’m 24 weeks this week! Instead of the usual belly pic, I’m bringing you a baby pic for my weekly pregnancy update. Because I can’t help but share this!
This was taken 4 1/2 weeks ago at my 20-week anatomy scan, but we just got the pictures and videos back this week and this one took my breath away.
Also, when we saw this, we immediately were all, “That is Silas’ nose and mouth!!” It was crazy to see Paine characteristics in utero at only 20 weeks!! We are so in love with this child!
Pregnancy Update
And now for a pregnancy update: I’m thrilled to report that this week was SO MUCH BETTER than last week!! Honestly, I had about 250% more energy, very little nausea, and almost no heartburn. I also slept like a rock every night but 2 nights. Say what?!?
The only thing I did differently was really take it easy over the weekend and make drinking water more of a priority. I honestly think that I’m figuring out that staying rested and having breathing room in my schedule plays a huge difference in how I feel overall — possibly even when it comes to things like heartburn and nausea. Or maybe it was just a fluke thing, but I’ll take it!!
My big goals for this next week are to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night (or at least to be in bed resting for 7 1/2 to 8 hours every night in hopes I’ll be sleeping for 7 of those hours!), to have a really restful Sunday (this seems to make a world of difference for my week!), and to get back to drinking a gallon of water per day (I’ve slowly been increasing my water intake now that it finally doesn’t make me sick!)
In other GREAT news, I passed my glucose test and my hemoglobin is at 10.0!!!! That is huge news for me and it seems like all the iron-rich foods, SlowFe, and Blood Builder I’m taking are working! I’m so grateful!
Thank you for your prayers, your constant encouragement, and the way you cheerlead me! I’m so grateful for each of you and how much you care about me, this precious baby, and our family. It’s truly humbling.
This Week at Our House
17 years ago last week, I walked down an aisle and committed to love and be faithful to my very best friend.
We had a budget wedding: I did my own hair and makeup and wore my mom’s dress, we hired the cheapest photographers we could find (as evidenced by the photo quality of these pictures!), and we had to set up folding chairs at the back of the church because there weren’t enough seats!
But the wedding details weren’t really what mattered (although there are a lot of funny stories and mishaps — like the fact that we hadn’t kissed before and totally botched the kiss at the ceremony or that my dad didn’t get my veil pulled back correctly so it stuck out all funky the entire ceremony!).
What mattered is that after years of dreaming of this day (Jesse and I met when we were 9 and 10 and liked each other from the time we were mid-teens), it had finally come and we were MARRIED!!
17 Years and One Thing Hasn’t Changed
I remember thinking on that day, “There’s no way I could love Jesse anymore than I do now!”
Well, 4 kids, 7 moves, lots of struggles and triumphs, and countless jobs and businesses later, our love is far deeper and stronger than I could have ever imagined back on our wedding day 17 years ago.
We might be a little grayer and more wrinkled, one of us might have a few more stretch marks, we might be a little more tired, and we might be a little less idealistic and more realistic, but one thing hasn’t changed: we are still fiercely in love and committed to fight for our marriage.
Jesse, thank you for falling in love with that big-glasses, big bangs, and bushy-eyebrowed girl all those years ago. You are one of God’s greatest gifts ever given to me! ❤️
Want to see a few more pictures from our wedding? I posted them on Instagram here. (Just hit the arrow button to see them.)
Kathrynne has been working hard to declutter and re-organize her closet. We want to At Home yesterday and took advantage of some of their sales to get some organizational items.
Her closet looks so clean and clutter-free now — and she can easily find whatever she’s looking for! (I posted some sneak peeks on Instagram stories yesterday and will do a full post on Friday with before and after pictures of her efforts!)
Kaitlynn and I went shopping for baby clothes yesterday! I had a $50 Target gift card and we found some really fantastic clearance deals, so we only spent $45 and we are all stocked up on the basics for newborn and 3 month clothes. It was so fun to get to shop for baby clothes… it was the first baby stuff we’ve purchased and made it feel SO real!
If you’ve been curious as to whether Butcher Box is worth the price, be sure to check out my really honest review that I posted this past week here.
If you need a laugh, go watch this short live video where I try to unbox my jewelry box and then cannot get these new earrings in my ear. Oh goodness… you just never know what will happen on live video!
