Before we get started, here are the past updates in case you want to catch up!
I didn’t record 22 and 23 weeks separately; the last two weeks were pretty similar again. So I just combined them for you in this week’s update again!
Baby Size:
Week 22: Ear of Corn
Week 23: Grapefruit
The fun thing that happened at the end of week 23 was Mr. Hungry felt the baby kick from the OUTSIDE. I thought that wouldn’t happen for a couple more weeks, but the baby was kicking pretty hard so I thought maybe he would be able to feel him. It turns out I was right! He’s felt him twice now!
I always expected that to be this beautiful, magical experience. Where Mr. Hungry would put his hand on my belly, and we would both be in speechless wonder about the miracle of life. What happened was, Mr. Hungry jumped so high into the air I thought he would hit his head on the ceiling and exclaimed “weird, I felt it!” And my reaction was similar, “OMG you did? Isn’t that NUTS? There is a baby in there!”
Not exactly the wonderful quiet moment I pictured, but if I’m honest, calm maturity isn’t either of our styles. I married the right man, and I laughed so hard I’m almost cried and peed.
Deets on the Maternity Clothes: Off Shoulder Maternity Top| Secret Fit Belly Cargo Shorts
Symptoms:
Shoulder pain/rib pain – mostly manageable. I ditched my beloved pregnancy U shape pillow and started sleeping with a pillow under my armpit. This lifted my rib cage enough I barely get any pain at night. I try to sit with the best posture and for the most part, am working sitting on the couch. I don’t love this because I’d rather be in my office but it seems to work out the best. I’ve also got K tape going from my front rib cage all the way around. This past Friday Dr. K worked on my neck in case some of the pain is coming from there. I think it’s posture related because when I sit straight up driving, I never have any pain.
Morning Sickness- The beginning of week 22 I felt like I was recovering from food poisoning, I was super sick and weak. Luckily it resolved, and I get sick when I first wake up. For the most part, it goes away within an hour.
Currently Missing:
Being more than halfway thru is a fun point. I’m mostly looking forward to things and not missing anything. If anything I could do with some more entertaining fun workouts, but it is what it is.
Sleep:
See shoulder pain. I miss my U shape pillow, but I don’t miss not being able to sleep from shoulder pain. I realized I feel so much better if I get 9 hours of sleep versus the 7ish I was getting. Getting up at 5ish is hard any time but requires going to bed early or I feel terrible. By 8 pm I can hardly keep my eyes open anyway, so that has been good. Over the weekend I slept 10-12 hours a night because we decided not to walk Nala for a couple of days. (You can read her update here, we didn’t want to do anything to dehydrate her potentially.) That was AMAZING and made me realize how much more sleep I do need than my non-pregnant self. Minus getting up to pee once or twice my sleep is good though!
Food Aversions:
Still the same as last week – no aversions besides chicken. I just don’t really like food. Nothing ever sounds great, just tolerable. Mostly what I want to eat is crackers and popcorn 24/7.
Shirt: MATERNITY A:GLOW RUCHED TANK – same shorts as above
Food Cravings:
Fruit of any kind but especially cherries, apples, and blueberries. I still eat an apple every day; it’s my absolute favorite snack. Oh, and crackers and popcorn did I mention that? Smoothies are always a hit at any time of the day; I have to will myself to make them.
I can almost always go for grilled cheese as I had at Perfect Pear a few weeks ago.
Or the burger I had at Zinburger!
Exercise:
Still, need to get into a prenatal yoga class….
Mood:
Eh, mostly positive. Kind of a roller coaster these days, but like I said mostly positive. I feel like the more things we get to put together the more excited and happy I am. I like to be prepared!
If I’m 100% honest, I’m probably more annoyed with things in general. Not angry or sad, just annoyed. And the annoyance fuse is SHORT. Other than that I’m great! Insert eye roll and thumbs up, ha ha. It’s kind of like being hangry when you’re not hangry.
Maternity Clothes:
I got a box from Stitch Fix over the weekend I LOVED. I shared it on my IG stories under pregnancy. I liked everything in the box but one piece but kept everything because of the buy five discount.
Reading:
Nursery:
Current situation…..
We haven’t bought anything new this week, but we did get some of our furniture delivered. Unfortunately, the bookshelf/hutch (it can be either) came damaged so we had to refuse it upon delivery. So that will be reordered, and we are still waiting to hear when we can expect that. In the meantime, we have the crib and the dresser.
We are keeping the bed in there because my SIL is coming to stay with us at the end of July. Her babe will be the first to test out the crib (don’t worry I’m ordering a mattress this week)! After that, we will remove that bed from the room.
I did decide on a theme though! I like the Safari theme! So I’m pretty excited about that!
Looking forward too:
This isn’t baby related but my birthday is TODAY! I have a friend coming in from out of town, plans with Mr. Hungry, and plans with more friends next week. Plus my FAVORITE holiday ever (4th of July) is this week. It’s been INCREDIBLE hard to not buy all the super cute little fourth of July outfits at the store. I’m stopping myself because I know babies grow at different rates and who knows what size baby really will be in July of next year!
Thinking about:
Last week I reached out to the Mediavine blogger group about maternity leave. Mediavine is my ad agency that is responsible for all my ad revenue on the site. We have a Facebook group where all the bloggers can connect which has been as valuable as the actual money I make with them. Many if not most of the bloggers in this group are “professional bloggers” aka their blog is their full-time job or a very large and important “side hustle.”
They recommended these articles I thought some bloggers might be interested in:
Most of their recommendations were to:
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decrease frequency of posts
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arrange guest bloggers
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schedule out as much social media ahead of time
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remember that baby is only little once
I have a lot to think about! As I prepare more and get more put together, I’ll make sure to give you guys an update on what I’m planning for my “blogging maternity leave.”
Alright, I’m out! See you again in two weeks for another update!
I’m sorry about the sleep issues, but I’m glad that you might have a better solution. I was pretty/very lucky that I just woke up a lot, not so much that I was in pain. The hubs FINALLY getting to feel the kick is so awesome. I didn’t feel Emmie kick all that much for a while because of the placement of my placenta, so I’m pretty sure Emmie had to whale away at my stomach in order for Alex to feel her.
PS you look amaze. JSYK.
And as for blogging and such–you are in a bit of a different boat than I was because your blog is very much your business. So while I would say “hey, take your time!” (and I really do), I understand the need to schedule and stuff like that. Mostly I would just decide ahead of time what you want to share and what you want to keep private. I’m obviously an over-sharer 😀
Thanks, girl for the advice! The decision on what to share will be a tough one for sure because it’s obviously not just what I’m comfortable with but also what the hubs is comfortable with. Sleep is getting so much better so I’m happy about that! I think we might have a little soccer player in there or something, I have an anterior placenta also so I don’t think we are supposed to be feeling anything yet.
Happy Birthday Kelli!!!!!!!
Pops and moms
The off the shoulder shirt is so cute on you! Also love the crib! So many exciting things happening!
Happy Birthday, Kelli!! You look great:)
Hi Kelli,
Thank you for sharing and I am so very happy for you! Your pregnancy photos are beautiful. I love reading your updates. Wishing you safe and speedy delivery.