19 Weeks

Ok quick summary of pregnancy this week.

I’m having to get used to feeling a baby kick me this week. Which is kinda awesome. And kinda surprising. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I am basically in denial that I am pregnant. I feel very, very pregnant. But I think I’m surprised anyway to actually BE pregnant. I guess I just keep assuming I’m undergoing some sort of medical trial of existence. It’s very hard to remember I have a child inside me. So I like getting noticeably kicked by that child as a reminder. But often after a good kick, I tilt my head to the side in questioning confusion before I remember what’s going on.

Then on the other hand, I do that mom thing, where if I haven’t felt a kick in a while (I mean baby’s still small, so I doubt I feel all baby’s moves) I sorta start to worry till I feel another one, which may be a while.

The mental tight rope that is motherhood.

You guys, I’m worried I’m going to be enormous by this summer.

I feel VERY pregnant already. Like death waddle pregnant.

I don’t even bother trying not to waddle like a pregnant penguin (good thing penguins lay eggs! They’d be in trouble otherwise!) I just embrace the full fledged arm on lower back, legs WIDE apart, WADDLE.

I really don’t know what to expect in June -- or (Baby PLEASE pick a June Birthday, PLEASE!) July.

That evening-out-belly-thing I had going last week... I’m kissing that goodbye.

I feel full term already.

"Embrace the huge, Lydia.

Come to the dark side, huge side."

The nausea is not gone. I believe I cried a couple times this week due to the emotional exhaustion of that.

My Birthday was Monday (Yesterday). I tried really hard to think of something I’d like for, or to do on, my birthday with all the endless sickness feeling. I couldn’t come up with any ideas.

Thankfully, Saturday I felt ok. And so Blake let me go out to the stores all morning and I feel I hit the jackpot on my shopping adventures. So I called that my birthday celebrating for this year. Some decent-feeling, grown up alone time, good shopping, works for me!

Let me tell you about my shopping adventure.

Recently, I had to steal some stuff off my family room mantel for other spaces.

Which wasn’t a big deal, since all that stuff was just random anythings I stuck up there.

But now I needed stuff to replace it!

Emily Henderson taught me this stuff about styling a mantel. (Believe me, her ideas are great, and well…pinterest, if you search mantel ideas/decor/etc, you get a TON of tutorials, but most are not your best bet aesthetically speaking.)

Side Note: My pregnancy dreams now involve me hanging out with design bloggers and just talking shop. Like every night. I may be losing it. Or reading too many design blogs. (Wait, no, there are never enough. I’m still on the look out for more favs. Got any?)

So with her tips in mind I headed off to our thrift stores.

I actually had in mind a full family room stylization -- Pillows for couch and anything decorate-y whatsoever. I’m ready for some of my rooms to have the finishing polish put on them.

Since it was “my birthday celebrating day” I’d say it went over fantastically. 

For one thing, I think I got checked out and hit on three times while shopping. I say “think” because I seriously do not understand the male-female-dynamic while pregnant. AND I was waddling unabashedly. So I don’t really know what happened. One guy talked to me for like 15 mins, but I couldn’t tell what his point was, nor could I tell if he was gay or straight. Maybe he just likes chatting it up with everyone.  I don’t know.

But I also got told I was beautiful, by a sorta overzealous grandpa. I don’t know. It wasn’t in a sweet old grandpa way, more like nice guy, who just can’t help being a creepy old man kinda way. And creepily checked out by another guy, who darted away when I made eye contact. I don’t know. lol. I literally have no idea. I was WADDLING like a duck. I mean, maybe the single ladies should take note. WADDLING -- the key to picking up men?

But on a shopping note. I found tons of great stuff. It was a jackpot day.

All sorts of great looking art and mantel decor at the thrifts.

And then some great pillows at TJMaxx one for only $15 and the other $18, which I thought were great prices since the fabric is high quality and the inside is down.

Then at another thrift store I found three nice quality down pillows, so I bought those for $2 a piece. One (from Create and Barrel) will work as is. And two will be great re-covered. I washed them on hot and they are good as new. Who can beat down throw pillows for $2 a pop?

I found a really pretty shower curtain there too, for $3 which I will be using to recover them. I mean I was just scoring left and right. (Happy Birthday to me.)

I’ll have to show you my couches later once I get the pillows recovered. (And I clean the 700 toys off of them and around them.)

But for now I will show you what I have up on my Mantel. It still need a bit of tweaking. But I’m really liking it.

Everything up there, except the ampersand, and the (sorta hard to see) silver tree on top of the books on the right, were from the thrift stores. 

The tree was a gift years ago from my sister in law.

And the ampersand came from Hobby Lobby.

I love Emily Henderson’s ponies in a vase, but I don’t have the time or funds for fresh peonies every however many days. So I tried some fake ones in the blue vase, but they looked LAME, so I’ll be returning them. And I think I’m gonna try and make some fake ones out of either coffee filters or cut of book pages. Because if they are gonna be fake, at least they should look stylized fake.

I’m also trying to decide if the vase and paintings need a paint job or not. And the ampersand needs to have something done to it too. I’ve been pinning lots of ideas here. But I have to make up my mind which way I wanna go. I can’t tell quite how traditional or how “fun/funky” I wanna go with this room yet. I don’t have the full vision. So I’m not sure which way I’m leaning.

After my huge day of shopping, which was mostly nausea free, Sunday I felt the recoil of very awful nausea. That seems to be this pregnancy’s way. If I can escape it for a while, I have to pay it back in full soon after.

Sunday all I did was lay on the couch and feel sorry for myself. The super bowl happened during that.

And you wanna know how awesome my husband is? He let me change the channel to PBS and watch Downton Abby WHILE the super bowl was on. He’s the best ever. I turned the Super Bowl back on ASAP for him when it was over. What a keeper, I tell ya. I love that guy!

And in other room news:

We got the bamboo blinds hung up last night. (I’m counting it as my bday present.)

We used the same blinds and the same exact hanging method as Young House Love once did.

I can’t tell you how pumped I am to have this room painted and blinds up. The room feels so…like it should.

(Well clearly it should be cleaner. But clearly I don’t care enough to clean before I blog.)

(I’m not sure what the girls are doing, but I don’t think it’s the fact that they mind having their photos taken.)

Flash Back for good measure:

 And over the sink. Sorry this photo is pitiful. 

ha.

Like I said, someday I’ll photograph like a “real” blogger.

For now, I’ll waddle my pregnancy photos just like I waddle my pregnancy butt. 

lol.

With Pride, embarrassment and apathy all at once.

Hope you enjoy.