Information overload

Me two weeks ago :-)

We're trucking along at 23 weeks this week--almost six months along! The countdown says we have like 120 days to go... which is kind of terrifying, to be honest. I'm feeling good. I took a few weeks off from working out, but I'm back to doing my cardio and strength training the last two weeks and I've done yoga twice this week while we were in San Antonio. I'm amazed at how much weaker I have gotten in what feels like a short time. Planks are hard for me now--something I've always been really good at! I'm also a little worried about doing exercises that wouldn't be good while I'm pregnant--such as certain ab exercises or whatever. Which is why I really like prenatal yoga--the instructor makes sure you're working on the poses that will help you and steers clear of the ones that aren't so good! Zach used his personal trainer skills and put together a program for me though, so now I can do prego-safe workouts and I feel better about it. I tried swimming, and I do like that a lot too, so I hope to do more of that.

fourth of july!

Being in the water is actually awesome this summer. It's been years since I've been so excited to just go to a pool! It just feels so nice. :-)

We found a birth boot camp class in our area and we start attending in August. The instructor is also a doula, so I'm hoping we can talk to her about using her for the birth. I think I've finally found a yoga place in Fort Worth, and now I'm looking for a chiropractor. Little by little we are going through the to-do list! Which brings me to...

Every store should have a parking spot like this!

Figuring out what stuff we need for Baby Wilder is completely overwhelming. For example, today, Zach and I finally decided what color convertible crib we want. It's been a week of hemming and hawing (mostly on my part). And the decor is the EASY stuff! We've been blessed with some items people have given us, which makes things easier, but I'm still way over my head with registry/deciding what things we would like to get for the baby. I feel like with wedding registry, I had a list from The Knot and we walked around the store and scanned stuff--followed up with some things online. DONE. We walked around Buy Buy Baby last week doing the same thing except a lot of things (strollers, diapers, playards, tub stuff, breast pumps) I felt like I needed to research and we just got overwhelmed. One week later I looked at our registry online, and out of 69 items, 45 were "unavailable." So it was a total waste of time walking around the store that way. Except... we did find a glider and the crib. But the glider is only available in the store and you can't even look at it online. And the crib is only available in the store too!

Anyway. So the rest of the registry stuff I am just doing online. Which is good and bad. Good because you have a million options and tons of reviews. Bad... because you have a million options and tons of reviews! I'll think to myself ok, time to pick a stroller. 20 minutes later... I'm just swimming in options. I feel like eventually we'll get there in picking things, but my mind is so full right now. Does anyone have any good suggestions of how to choose items? Like... is there a method to the madness? Should I just go and pick randomly or or start in one room or one store or... what? I know there are basics we need, but even the basics have tons of options!

In other news, we renovated our closet! My before photo doesn't really show the stuff we changed. It doesn't look like it, but the space wasn't well-utilized with the shelves we had, and those shelves were wired together with coat hangers and falling off the walls when we moved in. I had plastic drawers and cloth hanging shelves in there--it looked messy the second I organized my stuff. I really didn't like how everything looked, even though its a huge room. And the worst was the lighting--it was a fluorescent light that flickered and literally made me sick to my stomach every time I turned it on. It was like a disco... only not fun. So we purchased an Elfa closet system from The Container Store and Zach's uncle tore down the old shelves and that wood shelf thing you see above. He also filled in the dry wall, painted and tore up the carpet (which was all wonky without the wood shelf). He installed ceramic wood looking tile for us, which I LOVE. We have ceramic wood tile in the office, and it looks really nice. He also replaced the track lights by the mirror with new lights and tore out the fluorescent light, replacing it with three LED can lights. YAY! No more flickering!

Lovelovelove

We also have purchased wooden hangers and grey/linen baskets to line the upper shelves. It feels so grown up to me to have a fancy closet and matching hangers! Zach took care of all of this while I was working at the World Show and we haven't had much time to put everything away yet since we've been gone, but I'm super excited about our closet. That's one major project out of the way! I just need to find a gray (hopefully quatrefoil or damask pattern) runner rug and a teal storage ottoman so I can sit and put my shoes on and it will be all done.

Lots has been going on, but I feel like I've written enough for now. :-) Mid-June to Mid July has been a crazy month. Seriously can count on one hand how many days I've spent in the house, between us going to Red River for Veritas Life Adventures, me going to a work conference (AHP) in Colorado Springs, the World Show and time spend in San Antonio, photographing a wedding in Victoria... it's been really a lot. I'm ready to be home for a bit!

And seriously... any advice on how to systematically decide what items to pick for our baby would be appreciated. :-)