She's Here.

So, things have been crazy around here as of late. The little munchkin that had her shoulders in my left hip and feet up under my right rib cage for 9 months finally made her big debut on June 12. We were so thrilled to finally meet her and the last month and a half has been a whirlwind of emotion and new responsibilities. There's not a book, specialist, article, class or doctor that can prepare you for the new life that having a baby throws at you. There has been little sleep, lots of frustration, many sweet snuggles and kisses along with an influx of uncontrollable tears over the last several weeks! It's so strange to watch a tiny little human being sigh as she's in a deep sleep and examine her teeny tiny finger nails and all her precious details and think that all of that, right there, is a part of you. You + your man, obviously. She was a part of me, literally, growing and developing those precious miniature fingernails and lungs for breathing, for 40 weeks of my life. It's a hard concept to wrap your mind around - and for me, it's amazing to look at her now and remember that she was that gigantic bump on my stomach for the last nine months. The circle of life, I tell ya. It's pretty dang neat.

She was born weighing 9 lbs. 10 oz and measuring nearly 21 inches long. A big, squishy, 100% healthy ole thing that looked more like a three-month-old than a newborn. She was alert and precious and had the sweetest disposition about her immediately. The first night in the hospital I stayed up all night long, holding her and just staring.

Seven weeks in and she's already got us wrapped around her finger. She's the cutest thing I've ever seen and sometimes we just sit and stare at her. She doesn't do much other than sleep, eat, dirty diapers, squirm and fidget, but every little bit of it is a precious happening. She's getting stronger each day - learning to hold her head up, focusing her eyes and smiling at us now - and it's amazing to watch her grow by the minute.

I find myself looking forward to her next milestones - however, I'm constantly reminding myself to stay in the now and appreciate her each minute. We're already learning that time really does go by too fast! 

We're so blessed and thankful for our little angel!

My camera is in the shop, so I haven't done her official newborn photo shoot yet, so iPhone snaps will have to suffice for now.

Here she is - our sweet, squishy, big-eyed babe, Gracen Kinley.

That 'M' Word...

It's been kind of a crazy, whirlwind nine months, y'all. Forty weeks seems like an eternity to be pregnant, yet somehow I find myself shocked at how quickly it all unfolded. People told me that in the beginning, too. "It'll go by so fast!" However, when you're barely 6 weeks pregnant and thinking about the entire process that lies ahead, it's almost impossible to actually believe them when they say it'll go quickly. Yet, here I am. At the end. Thinking it all went by so quickly. Funny how that happens. It's kind of a bittersweet feeling, too. There's nothing I want more than to be done with this pregnancy and feel physically comfortable again, but sometimes I find myself a little nostalgic that this time has come to an end. It's one of those things that you think about all your life...getting pregnant, what it will be like, the process, having the baby, having your own baby to take care of...yada yada. It has always seemed like one of those things that you see in your future but never really imagine it happening to you. Does that make sense? And now that this time has come for me and I've experienced my first pregnancy and now am about to experience giving birth to my first child, all I can think about is the fact that I did it. I'm here. The unknown of pregnancy has been lived and conquered. It's that same feeling I got the day after my wedding. That, "So that was it?" kind of feeling. And not like a disappointed "that was it" type feeling, but more of a, "It's over and done with and I won't get to experience that again," feeling. So thrilled and pleased with the happening, but a little bummed that milestone has come and gone. I know, I know, there can and probably will be more pregnancies for me, but it's this first time thing that I'm talking about. The newness of the experience.

I really don't have any complaints about this whole pregnancy thing. At least not any of the unselfish kind. Of course I can tell you that I feel like Large Marge and I miss the cute clothes and waistline and all, but those are all superficial whinings that come with the territory. I really did have the easiest pregnancy ever. I never got sick, my emotions never really got elevated in any direction, I didn't have any weird cravings or aversions, there's been no stretch marks or swelling of the hands or feet, my blood pressure has remained low and steady...I mean, I'm a lucky gal, I get it. And knowing this, I know I have no room to express any kind of frustration solely because I'm uncomfortable. It could be worse and I certainly have heard the stories. I'm so thankful it wasn't. My heart goes out to you women.

Now, this will come as a surprise to no one, but I am not the poster child for pregnancy, either. I am not one of those bubbly girls who feels like pregnancy brings out the inner Greek goddess unicorn warrior princess lurking inside of her. I don't feel like I can conquer the world simply by strutting my pregnant belly around for all to see, and I certainly never had that glow about me that people rant and rave about all the time. In fact, I've gone about my business as usual for the last nine months and have avoided any additional attention or pregnancy discussion at all costs. I haven't felt all that different than I did beforehand, life has just gradually gotten a little more difficult to maneuver through. You know, physically and all.  In a weak moment, I did find myself sympathizing with the women on My 600-lb life on TLC a time or two, though. I mean, I too have found myself sitting back with my plate of  food on my belly because it's too hard to lean forward and eat and breathe at the same time. I've felt the pain of having to propel your body forward with a grunt to get up off the couch or out of bed. I can't see the lower half of my body anymore. I can't squeeze between tables without bumping into someone. And yes, maybe the floor boards of my car and the area around my desk at work is a little messy because bending over to pick up dropped items is a task that sometimes just isn't worthwhile. I've also found myself crying during trashy TV shows like 16 & Pregnant on MTV because there's a tiny portion of my soul that sympathizes and can relate to these disastrous little girls. I don't know. I don't really know where I was getting with that. Don't watch TLC or MTV while pregnant, I guess.

Anyway, pointless ramblings aside, this time is now coming to an end any day now. I'm totally freaked and equally as at peace about the process. That makes no sense really, but somehow it does to me. The unexpected of what will happen when we bring her into this world terrifies me because it's an uncontrollable that I really can't plan for. Yet I remind myself daily that women were designed for this and I know that whatever happens, holding this little nugget of ours for the first time will bring a calming peace and trump any other emotion I've ever felt. It will all have been so worthwhile and I can't wait. It's exciting to think about and wonder what she will look like, too. After carrying her for nine months, I've dreamed about her and talked to her in private and developed a relationship with her that can't be explained to anyone who hasn't experienced it themselves. Though I get busy and life is business as usual, every once in a while I stop and remember that there's a little human being squirming around in my belly, living my life right there with me every step of the way. My little buddy. It's beyond exciting to imagine the moment that we will finally get to hear her scream and see her swollen little body for the first time and kiss those squishy little cheeks that our sonographer has commented on for the last few months! I'm so thrilled that we're so close to the end and that we've had such a positive experience. My mind is consumed with the thoughts of what is to come over the next few days or weeks and it makes me smile every time I walk in my front door and see baby items that are patiently awaiting their new owner. As quickly as she moved in and took over every inch of my midsection, this little lady has totally stolen our hearts already. 

Can't wait for this new chapter of life and every crazy detail that will come along with it. It's going to be hectic and wild (did I mention we're moving to a new house TWO WEEKS after her due date? AH!) but so so fun. Part of me finds it hard to believe that I am here, and the other part of me can't imagine it any other way!

So, the next time you hear from me on this bad boy I will be a few lbs lighter, on cloud 9 and totally a mom. 

AH! The 'M' word....WHAT!? Never thought the day would come.

Ok, I'm ready, little miss Gracen Kinley. Let's do this.

#stylethebabybump

So...I really enjoy this blog. And I really really enjoy fashion and styling and getting dressed in the mornings and sharing with you all my outfit choices. I follow tons of other bloggers and find so much of my wardrobe inspiration from them, so I hope that my outfits do the same for those of you who are always looking for ways to work your wardrobe! However, being pregnant and all has made capturing an outfit these days is a little taxing, I'll admit. I wish I was more diligent about it, but I haven't been. However, I do manage to take snaps of my looks on the days that I like it and I keep up from time to time on my Instagram. So, all that being said, I don't have any kind of fancy photography type of outfit shot for you just yet (sorry!), but I have compiled some selfies snaps of my favorite looks as of late. 

Here are a couple of my recent favorite looks for those of you that are expecting and need a little inspiration in the wardrobe department. It can be hard styling that bump, y'all!

<<Confession: I've done everything I can this pregnancy to buy minimal "maternity" labeled pieces. One pair of both denim and black denim skinny jeans and a few cotton tees and tanks are the only maternity-specific items I've invested in. All the other items in the images below are pieces I already owned and luckily could still make functional over the last nine months! So don't discard your pre-pregnancy closet, you'd be surprised at how many of your favorite pieces you can still rock!>>

A Fashion Fangirl Tribute to Sienna Miller

I mean....it's Sienna Miller, y'all. She's a fashion icon and just has this obvious coolness about her that can't be beat. I want to raid her closet and be best friends with her. 

Below are some of my favorite editorials she's done over the years... 

Talking Trends: Overalls - are we overthem?

So...maybe you've noticed...maybe you haven't. Maybe you're just choosing to ignore it. Or maybe you're wishing your mama kept all those old outfits in the attic. But the overalls are making their way back into the fashionably acceptable world, y'all. The 90s are managing to weasel their ways back into our closets. Probably meeting the resistance of most people who look back on pictures of themselves during those years and cringe. However, nonetheless, as fashion always does, these styles have cycled. Our streets and stores now kind of look like the wardrobe closets of the cast of Saved by the Bell. As I type this I'm having bittersweet flashbacks to 5th grade and this fab pair of black corduroy ovies I dawned at least three times a week. I had a couple of sweet striped cotton tees I would sport underneath - totally looking like a 11-year-old baller. At least in my head. I more so just looked like the mannequin in the window at Limited Too. But I rocked those bad boys until my next growth spurt, you better believe it. I had this sweet denim pair, too. I think that was the next school year. In true 1999 fashion, I wore those gems with a solid pair of clunky Dr. Martens over some tall white socks that made my chicken legs look like they were going to break in half with every heavy step I took in those boots. I mean...the overalls, you guys. I just don't even know. I think they're a great way to sport the casual, comfy look, but then change it up some with a great pair of heels. Kind of like the next level of baggy boyfriend jeans we've all been loving. They're also a great bohemian outfit option for those festival lovers out there. I don't know. I have mixed feelings - some looks I love, some I can live with out and this is one that just falls somewhere in fashion purgatory. 

What do you guys think of this new old trend? How would you style them? Would you give them another chance? Party like it's 1999? Yeah? 

Wedge Your Way Into Spring

Here are a few great wedge options for you to add to your collection this spring. Click the image to shop it!

Enjoy!!

A rambling kind of boring update on my pregnancy thus far.

Disclaimer: This post is in no way shape or form related to fashion. Sorry, I know you come here expecting to be awed by some new fashion garb or another, but not today. Sorry boutcha. Unless, of course, you are curious to know that I conquered a big fear and wore a tight dress to a cocktail event the other night. OK fine. I'll tell you more about that real quick because it makes this post relevant on a fashion blog.

I really battled this decision, you guys. Finding an appropriate dress to wear to a cocktail-attire event while pregnant proves to be much harder than I had imagined it would be. I refused to throw on the typical cliche maternity belted wrap dress, and anything that is flowy just looks like a sheet hanging off of me. Not flattering. Not at all. So, because my waistline is now gone and normal dresses with a normal non-pregnant person's waistline don't fit me, this left me with one option. Blatantly rocking the baby bump with something fitted. Now, I'll admit. I've had mixed feelings about this look. I see some pregnant women wearing tight dresses and it totally freaks me out. But then I see others and I'm like, OK, she's proud, she's working it, it actually looks pretty cute. So I thought I would just figure out how I felt about them on myself. This brought me to my next dilemma: Where do I find a fitted maternity dress? Maybe I buy a normal dress a size up to accommodate my bump? Or maybe I don't have to go a size up because it'll be stretchy. But maybe if it's stretchy then it'll totally pull and look ridiculous over this soccerball of a belly I currently own. ....These are the thoughts that haunted me for a couple of weeks, y'all. So totally overworked this in my head to a point of frustration because I'm crazy like that. So, I searched and debated on where to go to find a dress I would like and what I was willing to spend on a maternity dress for a cocktail event that I probably won't wear again during this pregnancy because we're not that cool or fun or social enough to go out more than once every couple of months these days, let's be honest. Anyway. I ended up finding this basic black dress at H&M for $24 and ordered it and just prayed it would work. And it did, PTL. Arrived the day before the event, with not a moment to spare, but it worked nonetheless. And it was not a maternity dress, and it was a size small, so I can wear it post-baby, too. High five to me for the find. I was thrilled. Of course I think I asked my husband 8,000 times if I looked ridiculous trying to rock a fitted dress with three very large lady lumps on my front side. He was encouraging as usual and I bit the bullet and wore it. The funny thing about wearing a tight dress when you're pregnant AND at a casino night event is that you have people that size you up and down trying to figure out if you are in fact, pregnant, or if you're just trying to be that girl that wants to squeeze into her old high school getup .I just imagined that every female I walked by looked at me and said, "Aww..bless her heart. She thinks she can still fit in that." And for those that could tell that I was obviously pregnant, they were thinking, "What is SHE doing at a casino night? I hope that's just water in that glass of hers." Seriously. I do this to myself. Over think and over analyze every single thing. I'm crazy..straight cray cray.

Here's a quick selfie of how the look turned out:

So there's a little fashion talk for you on your Wednesday. There wasn't any kind of point to it except to maybe say that if you're pregnant and don't know what to wear to a cocktail event, I feel you.

My original intent for this post was just to give you all a little update on this journey we're on. I told myself I would do this along the way and write down memories and pregnancy happenings and all that, but truth be told, it's all been pretty uneventful thus far. Which I'm thankful for, don't get me wrong. I was symptom-free during the first trimester...which apparently reeeeally irritates other pregnant women that didn't fair so well. I'm sorry, do you WANT me to try and be sick and miserable? Don't know what you want me to say here - Um, sorry? At 12 weeks, we had an early prediction from our doctor that the little munch was going to be a girl. Apparently, there's a little nub of a bone that, at 12 weeks, looks different on a boy and girl. When they look at this little bone on an ultrasound, they're able to make an educated guess that they claim is 80% accurate. (Google the nub theory if you want to know more. It's super interesting.) Still, we had to wait until our official gender reveal full anatomy ultrasound at 18 weeks to get actual, visual confirmation of certain parts...:)

We felt our first bout of movement from the little nugget on Christmas morning when I was 16 weeks along. I was laying on my back scrolling my phone when it felt like suddenly someone poked me from the inside out. A weird little jab and that was it. Of course I immediately woke my husband up and said, "SHE KICKED ME!" And then made him rest his hand on my stomach for like, 30 minutes, hoping she would do it again. She didn't. But, those little jabs became more frequent and more recognizable over the next couple of weeks and it was super exciting when husband could feel them himself for the first time. My friends ask me all the time what it feels like, and my only way to describe it is that it feels like there's a little alien parasite squirming around inside of me. Super bizarre. At 18 weeks, we found out that we do, in fact, have a little lady in there. Yay! Good thing too, because we were loaded up with girly goodies from our families at Christmas who decided that the 80% accurate odds we had been given in our first prediction were good enough to run with. Even still, I didn't start feeling super pregnant until week 22 or so, when I would be distracted at the gym because all I could look at was my stomach that felt heavy on my hips and was no longer flat in my reflection. Since then, my little bump has grown by leaps and bounds and it keeps surprising me every time I stop to look at myself in a mirror. Little lady is doing cartwheels and forward rolls constantly and I find myself sitting at work staring at my stomach watching it move. I swear she's the little vampire baby from Twilight who is inhumanly strong and trying to climb and pry her way out of me. Sometimes during the day I look down and see that my whole right side is hard as a rock and the left side looks deflated and flat. Homegirl likes to camp out on my right - she has since day one. I can almost guarantee an angry jab back at me if I push around anywhere on the right side of my stomach! I don't know if I'll ever get used to the ripply rolls and waves my stomach feels like it's doing these days. The other night, my husband had his hand on me when she was being super active and said "Oh that felt like a fish swimming by you in the water!" ...I guess that's a pretty good way of describing it. It's amazing how much she's squirms around in there. Kind of eerie.

Now, at 26 weeks, we're about done with the second trimester. It treated us just as kind as the first one did, and we're hoping this last little hike through the third trimester will do so, as well! I'm full on pregnant looking now, no disguising it anymore! We have our glucose test coming up next week (yuck) and our 28-week ultrasound after that. Baby is opening her eyes and hearing sounds starting this week. A big milestone! She's like 10 inches long and weighs almost two pounds now too, so the next ultrasound will be exciting to see! That's about the size of a large eggplant, in case you're wondering. That's what my app says. Yes, there's an app for that. Still haven't had any weird cravings or symptoms, either. Maybe I'm a LITTLE more emotional than usual, but that's still not saying much. Just not a sentimental person, you guys, what can I say? Someone once told me I was heartless and incapable of emotion. To that I say: Haters gon hate. Food has been pretty easy for me as long as I eat small meals. I wish I could be like, "Today I had pickles covered in mayonnaise dipped in peanut butter!" but luckily my stomach and taste buds have been pretty normal. Chicken is kind of geeking me out - especially Chick-Fil-A. Which breaks my heart. The good Lord knows I love me some CFA, and I just can't do it anymore. I have found, however, that I can eat cereal pretty much for every meal and not get sick of it. So we've been cycling through some seriously unhealthy amounts of Honey Nut Cheerios and Rice Krispies around our household. And by we I mean me.

I have found myself wondering what the last few days of this pregnancy will be like. It will be here before we know it and I am down right petrified. Seriously a nervous wreck of a human being. I can't believe it's so close! I've told several people that I didn't even really feel pregnant or different until about 6 weeks ago, so this pregnancy has seemed to fly! We're only 14 weeks from our due date and it just seems pretty unreal. We have so much to do between now and then, but it is super exciting to know that the little munch will be joining us for this summer! Also helps to know that I have two months of maternity leave, and my husband will be off at the same time because he is a teacher and has his summers off! Perfect timing :) Can't wait to meet this little girl that has been such a surprise but is already such a blessing in our lives!

I'll keep you all posted on how things go over these last couple of months! Can't wait until June!