Charleston/Isle of Palms

We met our good friends Chad and Amanda in Charleston to celebrate her 30^th birthday and as a small baby moon for us as well!  We rented a charming house in Isle of Palms about 20 minutes outside of Charleston.  It was a quick trip but we had such a wonderful time exploring downtown Charleston, eating fresh seafood, and catching up.  On Friday night after we arrived we stayed around the beach and tried Poe’s Tavern which came highly suggested by friends and was really delicious.  That night we stayed up and caught up on life since it’d been a few months since we last visited them in Charlotte.  Saturday morning we went into Charleston for brunch at my new favorite brunch place called Poogan’s Porch.  It was insanely delicious, I could eat there every day if it wasn’t so far away and wouldn’t result in my gaining tons of weight.  Kyle got chicken and sweet potato waffles and I had the shrimp and grits.  Both were divine, seriously if you are in Charleston you have to make time to eat there.  After stuffing ourselves silly we went exploring including the artist market, rainbow row, and the battery.  Charleston is a very easy city to explore on foot and the homes are so charming.  It did make us all wish we had a lot more cash to be able to snatch up one of those gorgeous historic southern homes.  In the afternoon we visited Westbrook Brewing before heading home for a nap, I was 32 weeks pregnant after all which seems to require regular naps to function after so much walking.  That evening we ventured back to downtown Charleston for a fancy seafood dinner and then drinks (water and sprite for me) at a gorgeous rooftop bar!  It was such a fun weekend and we already starting discussing our plans for annual trips together in the future, I think Savannah is our plan for next year!

2016 Year in Review

2016 was a really inconsistent year for blogging for me.  I found myself really busy and distracted but wanted to make sure to do my annual year in review:

• This was our first full year in our grown up suburb house!
• Kyle started his study and data collection for his dissertation
• In May we found out we were pregnant
• We replaced and built our dream deck in June
• We celebrated our 8th Wedding Anniversary
• In September we found out we were expecting a little girl
• In October I was promoted to Senior Manager
• Kyle submitted chapters 4 & 5 for his dissertation for feedback (defense scheduled for mid-February, so exciting!)
• Races: Wowee Owee 5k, Dionysus Dash 5k
• Concerts: Beyonce, Thrice, Third Eye Blind
• Several wonderful couples got engaged which means lots of fun weddings to attend in 2017: JoAnna & Jon, Katie & Yotam, Audress & Phil, Adam & Samantha, Megan & Paul

Trips:

• Spring Break: Asheville with Chad & Amanda
• Orlando, FL - Disney with Amy & Nelson
• 12 Mile Indiana for the 4th of July
• Charleston/Isle of Palms with Chad & Amanda

Weddings:

• Alex & Katherine - May 7th 
• Nick & Kavya - October 8th 
• Collin & Kelsey - October 29th 

Combatting Anxiety

I hit my first big obstacle at about 27 weeks.  As she grew and crept up to crowd my lungs I was hit pretty hard with shortness of breath.  It mentally and quite literally took my breath away.  I had two panic attacks within about a week.  I’ve only had a few panic attacks in my entire life but having two so close together shook me to the core.  For a couple weeks I was almost paralyzed by the fear of having another attack.  I didn’t want to be alone, I was scared of everyday activities, and felt a constant uneasiness in my own mind/body.  The more anxiety I had about another anxiety attack the guiltier I felt about how my feelings might be affecting our little girl.  I was so worried I wouldn’t be able to handle the remaining 13 weeks and that every day I would feel awful and fearful.  It affected my appetite and my weight gain not only stalled but started dropping.  As the concern and guilt grew I decided it was time to be very open with my nurse practitioner who is also a family friend.  I felt my first signs of relief after I spoke my concerns out loud.  I was so thankful that she had also experienced anxiety attacks and helped me identify my triggers and gave me extremely practical advice about how to prevent my anxiety from spiraling out of control.  It is amazing how God places people the exact people you’ll need in your life.  I have thankfully avoided another attack since then and in the times when I felt my anxiety levels creep up I address it proactively and talk about it immediately if I need to.  I have learned a lot about myself throughout this and hope that I’m able to continue to grow and improve at handling anxiety. 

3 Words of Reflection – Peace, Endurance, Faithfulness

As I’ve faced some anxiety and physical challenges I’ve been praying a lot.  There are three words or themes that keep surfacing in my prayers.  The first is peace.  I’ve been praying for peace and a calm spirit as my body continues to prepare for delivery and parenthood.  I have a tendency to overthink things and a desire to be in control which does me no favors so I’ve been praying for a fence around my heart and thoughts that I can remain peaceful and thankful for everything in the present moment.  And that I can approach each new day with a calm spirit. 

The second is endurance.  This will be the biggest physical challenge I have ever faced but I constantly remind myself that God designed my body for this.  I pray for energy and focus and that I will use this remaining time to prepare my body the best I can and trust that God has prepared me in ways that I don’t even realize.  For example as sleep gets harder and harder I have been praying that these challenges are preparation for the sleepless nights ahead with the baby.

The third is faithfulness.  I pray that I will draw closer to God through each of these experiences.  I have such an intense desire to raise her well and I know that we cannot do that on our own.  I am flawed and human and will make mistakes but am so thankful for grace that will help me overcome the mistakes I’ll inevitably make.  We will need constant guidance, patience, and support.  These are things that we know can only truly be found through faith.  Prayer is so powerful and I need to remember to consistently turn to God in prayer in my moments of thankfulness and weakness.  

Third Trimester Woes

I was so fortunate to have had a relatively easy first two trimesters.  The third one is proving to be more difficult but each day brings us one day closer.  I’m just not used to being less mobile and having such drastic changes to my body in such a short period of time.  I’ve also got some fun ligament and back pain and sleeping is becoming increasingly illusive.  There are also lots of “fun” symptoms from the Pangaea that has become my internal organs as baby girls gets more and more real estate in my extremely short torso.  I’m trying to listen to my body and rest when I can and be productive when I have the energy.  It makes me very thankful we did so many of our preparations in the second trimester when I felt a lot more like myself.  I’m also learning to be more verbal with others about what I need and talking about how I’m feeling.  I am hoping this will helpful as we head into the difficult first few months as parents of a newborn.  Kyle has been so incredibly sweet and supportive and I’m incredibly thankful for him.  I know we’ll have great days and tough days but I feel like we have a really solid foundation going into this new adventure!

Maternity Photos

We are so fortunate to have such a talented friend who did our maternity photographs.  Kyle’s best friend drove down and went with us to the High Museum for the photo shoot.  There is an exhibit called Tiovivo which is a series of whimsical sculptures by Jaime Hayon.  It made for some really fun photos and I loved how it coincided with our whimsical nursery theme.  I was floored by the way the photos turned out.  We absolutely love them and I’m excited to have some of them framed to hang in our home as a reminder of the time when we were praying and preparing for the arrival of our little girl!

Christmas Decorations

This is my favorite time of year!  It’s a time for seeing friends from far away, getting extra time with family, and decking the halls with festive decorations.  I love seeing the sparkling of the lights and the warmth it brings to the chilly winter weather.  We collect ornaments from all of our trips and I love remembering those experiences each year as we hang them on the tree.  The past two years have also been special since my parents gave me my childhood advent calendar and nativity set for our home.  They are both such beautiful reminders of the incredible gift of our Savior and the anticipation of such a blessed event.  I can’t wait for these items to become part of our family traditions as well.  We laughed that next year a lot of our breakables will remain in storage so we enjoyed having them out this year!  

Packing for the Hospital

I think this has been the activity that has made it feel the most real that soon we’ll be heading to the hospital to meet our little one.  Having never experienced this it’s hard to know what I’ll want or need but thanks to tons of mommy blogs I hope we did a decent job packing.  The last step is installing the car seats which we’re doing this afternoon!

It’s countdown time!

I can’t believe we are in the final 27 days of pregnancy and less than a month from meeting our baby girl!  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t starting to get a little nervous about delivery but my excitement outweighs my nerves and I just pray it stays that way!

Christmas Party

This year I was a bit nervous about hosting such a big event at 33 weeks pregnant.  Thankfully we were able to have all the food catered and got help with the house cleaning.  I took a late afternoon nap and saved my 200 mg of caffeine for post nap so I could stay up and enjoy time with friends.  It worked like a charm and I was able to enjoy the whole night.  The photo booth was a big hit again and it was so heartwarming to catch up with friends that we love so dearly.  There is no better feeling in the world than seeing your home filled with smiling faces of the people you love!  

 

Nursery Update

Designing and decorating the nursery has been a ton of fun!  We knew early on regardless of the gender that we wanted the walls to be a calming color and for the décor to be whimsical.  Babies love bright colors but I wanted that to come mainly through toys and clothes.  After the showers we were really able to put the finishing touches on the room and now we are just waiting on our precious baby girl to arrive.  The cloud bookshelves and her mobile are my favorite.  Not only because they bring the hot air balloon and whimsical feel to life but because they were made by Kyle’s dad (the shelves) and my mom (the mobile).  

Here is a bonus picture of the playroom area we set up in another room upstairs.