Mom's chair

My mom used to rock my brothers and I in this chair. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her sitting in her chair reading, petting her cat Frankie or resting. This was her favorite chair for many years. The last time I went to San Antonio (after we knew we were pregnant), we rearranged a bunch of furniture at my mom's house. There are two rocking chairs in the room. I sat down for a rest (moving furniture is hard work y'all!) and it was like a lightbulb went off, and tears actually came to my eyes. I'd been scouring the internet and stores for an upholstered chair for our bedroom, but I really wanted one that rocked. This is exactly what I wanted. Since there were two chairs, Zach suggested bringing it to our home. It was the best decision we could have made.

Every time I sit in this chair, I feel my mom with me. It's such a comfort to me. I look forward to rocking our baby here just like my mom did for me. It's my favorite piece of furniture in this house.

First Trimester: Complete

I can't believe Baby Boatwright has been cooking for 12 weeks! It's true what everyone says--I'm starting to feel like myself again. Not so much nonstop carsickness. My bump is starting to look like I'm pregnant--as opposed to just belly fat. And I'm not *quite* so tired, although I've been sleeping less due to work deadlines.

On Monday we had a midwife appointment. I was hoping we'd find out the gender, but she said it'll be another month or so. Sigh, But!! This time we got to hear the heartbeat. She found it right away, and it's good, strong and fast. Whew! Everything seems to be healthy at this point--Praise Jesus.

I have to tell you something cool though. Sunday night I woke up and as I was going back to sleep, I felt something like a little flick in my lower right abdomen. It didn't feel like anything digestion related or anything I've felt before. I think it was the baby! At the midwife appointment, she put the Doppler *right* on the same spot and that's where she heard the heartbeat! And the next night, I felt like a little poke there. I keep hoping I'll feel it again. :-D

Here's week 11's photo.

Pregnancy announcement photos

My dear friend Jena Miller took some pregnancy announcement photos for Zach and I a few weeks ago. She was the second shooter for our wedding, and it felt so comfortable working with her on this session.  Honestly, I think it was the first photo session of Zach and I together, EVER that was actually pleasant weather. :-) Normally we are popsicles! These were taken across the street from her home in Waxahachie, and they turned out just how I'd hoped. Thanks Jena!!

side note--I'm getting better at the chalkboard writing!

Telling the family

It's been very hard not telling our nearest and dearest. We told Zach's parents fairly soon, but we held off on telling my family because we wanted to wait until after my brother Jonathan's wedding April 20. Happily, he and Holly are now married and honeymooning, so we told my family April 21. Here's a video of us telling Sharon and Dean on their wedding anniversary. We gave them a card with a long poem and signed the bottom "Love Zach, Abby and Baby Boatwright, coming November 2013." The reaction is priceless.



At the hotel the day after my brother's wedding, we met with my family. My dad exchanged birthday gifts for Zach and I, and we gave him a gift. It's a t-shirt that says "World's Best Grandpa." Here's how he responded. :-)




We rushed home to Fort Worth to our spring birthday gathering for more of Zach's family, and shared with them our news. We've been telling more family over the past few days. It's wonderful to have the news out there! We'll be sharing with more people in the next week. :-)

Prego updates

Since we haven't announced to the world our news, I've been lax about writing posts on the blog. We just told our families this weekend, so... I need to catch up! I'll start with a momentous occasion.

We got to see King George Strait with my brother Jonathan and his then-fiance Holly and her parents. It was surreal seeing the legend and I felt so privileged knowing our BABY got to experience George on his farewell tour. Maybe it'll inspire a love for country music!

On to my not so successful countdown photos. I'm a chalkboard fail. Just putting it out there.

I missed week 7 because we went to San Antonio, and I've missed the last two weeks because I ran out of time for week 9 and I was in Houston for week 10. Needless to say, it's been a really busy first trimester. Baby Boatwright and I have floated the Comal River, worn a bridesmaid dress and traveled several thousand miles.

Speaking of being on the road, Zach and I traded in Hermione, my faithful 2008 Volkswagen Jetta, for a 2013 Ford Explorer we've dubbed Cora the Explorer, after the mother in Downton Abbey. :-) Poor Jetta had 170,000+ miles already and was quickly costing more than it was worth. The Explorer is so so comfortable and perfect for the constant road trips we have to make. When people see it, they start wondering why we needed such a big vehicle, but with a baby (and fur baby, and two cats) on trips, it makes sense. Here she is!

At seven weeks, we visited the midwife, and were actually able to see the heartbeat! Here's a blurry photo of the sonogram. You can't really see anything else yet but... there's our baby!

Making Progress

I just realized I haven't posted any new photos of our home in a while. We've been in and out of town so much that we haven't done as much as we'd like to the house. However, we *do* have a few rooms done, and I want to show you some additional furniture we've gotten lately. Our kitchen will be completely "done" next week, so I'll post a photo of that very soon. Please keep in mind these are a work in progress, and our list of projects/improvements is about 20 items long! Without further ado...

Formal living room

This is furniture from my Grandma Sara's house. I've had the piano for a while. It was originally my Grandma Sally Wilder's, and I grew up playing it. It's really special to have it now. The nesting tables, chairs and couch are my Grandma Sara's. The cabinet to the right is one we purchased refinished from a friend. Nothing on the walls yet. We have some ideas, but haven't pulled the trigger. Desperately need new blinds and window treatments, a different piano bench cover we're debating on brightly colored pillows for the couch. :-) Where do you get your throw pillows?

Wingback chairs in formal dining room

These were my Grandma Sara's. We're going to reupholster the chairs in probably a teal pattern fabric. Any suggestions of FW reupholsterers or fabric ideas? You can see our new table behind them. More on that in a second.

Formal living room

These marble coffee table and end tables are from my Papa Wilder and Grandma Sally's formal living room (just like the piano). Growing up we spent many happy hours playing at their home. I never thought I'd use them myself, but they really work in our house now.

Formal dining room

I've been dreaming of hosting an honest-to-goodness dinner party for a long time, but we've only got a square kitchen table for 4 and a two-person bistro table. After a lot of deliberation, we settled on this trestle farmhouse table we found through Craigslist. A man actually builds them to specifications in Azle--let me know if you want his info. It was a good price and we're really happy with it. Now... TO FIND CHAIRS. I just can't decide on the chairs for this baby. Ideally, I want neutral linen upholstered like our bed... but I hear linen isn't durable... and we have neutral everything. Second choice, peacock teal chairs from World Market... but they don't have arm chairs to go with it. Plus, they're microfiber. So again I'll ask y'all--suggestions of where to get interesting side chairs? Something traditional but not too fussy. Maybe Parsons chairs...

Formal dining room

This mirror came from my Grandma's house... it used to be hung over the couch in my dad's parents house. The rest of the pictures on the floor... we're still mulling over where to put them. So hard to decorate!

Dining table

Upstairs desk nook

 Upstairs is pretty well done. We're hanging the last few pieces in the upstairs living room and then I can show it to you, and we do need to redo the bathroom wallpaper, but it's fine for now. I'll show you the bathroom another time!

Guest bedroom #1

 This room is pretty much done for now. We call it "the purple room" and I think it looks pretty good so far!

guest bedroom #1

Workout room

This is the room we spend the most time in upstairs. It's so nice to be able to do my workouts at home. We go to the gym every other workout, but the program I do can also be done right here! I love the two giant mirrors.

Well, there you have it. Just wanted to update you guys on the house so far.  I hope to have more things to show you as we get more time working on it!

We are...

Yes folks, the Boatwrights are having a baby! We found out one week ago today, so on March 6. I'm writing this on March 13, 2013--and in exactly eight months (November 13) our little one will be joining the world!

The day I found out, I took several tests over the course of the day. The one in the morning had a faint sign, but any second line means your pregnant. To be sure, I took another one that afternoon. It was an even stronger positive. I went to dinner with a friend on cloud 9. Picked up a jar of spaghetti and a digital test and rushed home to take it.

That test made things so much more real. I was shaking as I set up the table to tell Zach. He was on the phone with my brother, then sending an email, etc. I told him I got him something, and led him with his eyes closed over to the table. After a whole day of not telling anyone, it was such a relief to have my best friend in on our secret. We both started crying tears of happy joy. We'd prayed for a baby, but had really planned on working on it in March. But God said this was the right time.

If you know me AT ALL, what is the first thing I did? Pick up a pregnancy book right? Yeah you're right. I'm such a Hermione. I already had pregnancy books that I was studying to be prepared, so I picked back up on reading. I also made an appointment with a Nurse-Midwife at UNT Health in Fort Worth. I'd visited once before earlier this year, and right now I'm just waiting to get my blood test and meet with the midwife. I don't know what our "birth plan" will look like just yet, but a low-intervention birth in a birthing room attached to a hospital appeals to me the most. I've grown up with relationships with alternative doctors (went to a holistic chiropractor for most issues growing up versus a regular doctor) so I think that idea makes sense to me. We've a long way to go and of course, more research, but this is the first game plan so far.

So this week I've focused on adjusting to the idea that even though I have no symptoms (no morning sickness, thank goodness!) I am definitely pregnant. Zach and I have taken another look at our diet. We usually eat pretty well but the last few months we've been a little lax and enjoyed a lot of wine. Back to fresh organic stuff, less processed food, more protein (for me) and lots more water versus other fluids for me. I thought losing coffee would be awful, but all week leading up to the test I didn't have much of a taste for it anyway (GASP). I decided to just limit myself to one 8 oz cup instead of multiple 12 oz ones. Out of that one cup, I typically only drink half, and it's been great. I feel good and I get my little coffee taste. That has been a blessing. And I've actually toned up after cutting out the extra empty calories.

So today we tried to do a countdown photo. All this time I was counting my "weeks pregnant" from the day I ovulated, which was wrong. Instead of being like 3 weeks pregnant, I realized I'm actually FIVE weeks pregnant. And Baby Boatwright has grown from being a poppy seed last week to a sesame seed. Something about that 5 week mark just made this get real for me!

I have to share about my pinterest FAIL. I love the countdowns that use a chalk board and I had all these grand ideas for my own. I got this tutorial, got a chalkboard from Amazon, got chalk from Michael's, downloaded some fonts to try and designed how it would look on the computer so I could copy it. However, I didn't have a sharpener for my chalk. No biggie right?

Wrong. Instead of a pretty design, it looks like a little kid wrote the design. I don't have the best handwriting anyway--that honor goes to Zach, and my chalk was totally not working for me. Meanwhile the light outside was going away and my hope of getting dinner in the overn before Zach came home slipped away. Zach got home and bless his heart, he was very kind about the board. FInally I got it done and it still looked NOTHING like I'd hoped, but it would do for today. I figure we have several more tries to get it pretty over the weeks. And you ladies with chalkboards have my admiration. Please share your secrets!

***If y'all don't mind or if you're remotely interested, I thought I would keep track of the pregnancy through this blog as well as the rest of our lives. If you're not interested, feel free to scroll on by. I've still got travel recaps and house projects I'll be sharing!***