35 weeks!

You know you're getting close when milk has a sell-by date on your due date! This is from THREE WEEKS ago. Yikes!

I just looked at my last post, and man that was a long time ago! Let's see if I can recap. :-)

Bump watch:

Baby Wilder has done some GROWING! It's crazy to see how much over the last few months. I definitely feel it some days, but I still feel really good. It's hard to get up in the morning... as in, physically challenging to untangle myself from pillows and pets and get upright. But I do have to share the greatest invention for pregnant women since nutella:

The Snoogle

Don't laugh--this thing is awesome. It's like 5 pillows in one, and it sets you up to sleep on the left side like you're supposed to. It's also impossible to move to any other side with--or get out of bed. But I sleep really well with it and i haven't had any trouble sleeping all night!

We took a babymoon back at 25 weeks with some of our friends. We went to a resort in Cabo San Lucas. It was WONDERFUL to get to relax, swim, sit on the beach and eat amazing food. We even got to snorkel!

We traveled a lot in August. After the trip to Mexico, we went to Oklahoma to visit my brother and his wife -- a "sibling weekend"

Zach and I also went to New Mexico and Colorado for two stories. We stopped at the CS Cattle Co. in Cimarron, NM, and spent the night in Red River. Then we headed up to Colorado for a Campdraft event in Kiowa. Lots o' driving, but we had a good time.

That trip wore me out--we drove more than 1,000 miles in less than a week, and we were outside all day every day for 5 days. But it was worth it!

Since then, we've had two showers from our sweet families. We have one more tomorrow, so I'll cover all of those together in another post. It's been such a blessing to be surrounded with supportive friends and family. As we count down to when Wilder makes his arrival, I'm just blown away by people's care and generosity.

We also went to the state fair with my brother Jonathan and Holly. We tried a smorgasbord of fried food-- and it was *mostly* all delicious. :-)

Fried Kind Ranch Chicken Casserole (YUM), Fried Cuban Roll (pretty good), Fried Spaghetti and Meatballs (gross) and Fried Nutella (good). Not pictured: Fried Red Velvet Cupcake (AMAZING)

My fave: Fried Autumn Pumpkin Pie

Please note--fried food is usually not in our normal diet. Can't handle it! But the State Fair is the exception. You HAVE to have fried food at the fair.

We also had some maternity photos taken at 32 weeks with the oh-so-talented Jena Miller.

What else has been going on... I've been taking prenatal yoga, started prenatal chiropractic adjustments and we've been attending Birth Boot Camp - a natural childbirth class. I'm starting to feel more prepared and I think Zach is too... but I know we can never TOTALLY be prepared. :-)

Other things... I've been working on my freelance assignments a lot. I have a few more to turn in if I want to take November and December off, so the pressure is on.

We've also been doing a lot of improvements around the house. I'll write about that in another post. :-) But we've got just over a month to go before Wilder's due date! Crazy crazy.

Thanks for listening to my rambling!!

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. :-)

We're having a...

Yep! We're having a boy! Our long-awaited anatomy scan ultrasound happened on Monday. Within seconds of putting the wand on my belly, the technician told us we were having a boy. He made sure there was NO uncertainty! In that moment, I had flash forwards of the life our little man will have... and it just warmed my heart.

Our technician looked carefully over his little body. I can't get over his long legs and arms.... and TOES! He has little toes! He looks like a person! He's 11 oz. and he was measuring exactly the right size for how far along I am. Thank goodness!

It's surreal to me to know what we're having. I felt all along it was a boy... but this being my first pregnancy, I had nothing to compare it to at all. I even had a dream last week where I held my baby boy in my arms and I could see his face. But that's just crazy pregnancy dreams right? I would be excited either way, but now that we know... it's full steam ahead. We have had a name picked out for seriously two years.... and we've talked about it since before we got married. I'm happy to announce our little boy's name to y'all.

Wilder, of course, is my maiden name and I'm proud of the family it represents. It's a little bit cowboy rough and tumble, a little bit British, which kind of goes along with our last name. I had never thought of using is as a first name until I came across a cutting horse rider named Wilder Jones while reading cutting press releases for work at APHA (probably around 2009 if you can believe it). Once I saw the name... I was convinced. :-) Luckily, Zach agreed. I'm starting to see it crop up in baby name blogs and books like the Baby Name Wizard, but we didn't pick the name based on any trends... however, maybe it'll make the name a little more "acceptable" to people who might think it's weird. We don't really care though... this little one is gonna be wild! Dean is my father-in-law's first name, and I can't think of a better man to honor with our first boy's name than the man that raised Zach into the person he is today. If our boy doesn't want to be called Wilder as an adult, he can always go by Will or Dean... but he'll always be our Wilder.

I've had nursery ideas marinating in my head for a while--probably since before we got pregnant, so as soon as I got the word, I started putting them together. I have some blue and brown wood furniture from when I was a teen and I have always loved it. We're going to swap out a few pieces from one of our guestrooms to add the dresser and armoire that are blue and brown--and later we can get the bed and desk. I think we're going to purchase a convertible crib that can go from a crib all the way to a full size bed. A brilliant invention! We already have a kangaroo skin from Australia and a set of antlers, as well as that set of suitcases (do you recognize them from our announcement photos?). We have several world map prints that we are planning to frame for our house anyway, so I might take one of them and put it in Wilder's room. I really want that verse print... and there are a few other wall prints I'd like to pick out, but there's only so much room, so I'm not sure about that. I love that fake zebra skin rug, but Zach's not crazy about it so I might do a different kind of rug. Maybe fake cow skin. :-) Still need to decide about bedding, curtains and a glider chair, -- and maybe some more decor but these are the ideas I have so far! We want to keep using the room as a guest room for a while (it's the one with purple and grey bedding) so I probably won't convert it to a nursery till late September.

I was 20 weeks on Wednesday. I can't believe we're halfway there! I haven't gained much weight... the nurse keeps telling me I will eventually and the midwife isn't concerned. I've been trying to eat well and stay active, so we'll see how all of that goes. I've felt the baby move a little bit... maybe 3 times, but not regularly.

Two weeks ago we went to Red River, New Mexico with my BIL's group of teenagers. While Grant and the kids went camping, we hiked and walked and shopped around the town. I didn't know what we were having, but I did pick up a onesie because I couldn't resist. :-)

Gardening adventures

My beloved bougainvillea on the front porch.

Gardening with container plants at an apartment is a completely difference experience than landscaping a home. Zach put a lot of hours into our lawn and landscaping last fall, and he's on top of keeping it looking good this year with mowing and such. It's looking really nice! We planted one tree last fall, and that was about the extent of the gardening. This spring, I realized how hard weeding can be.... All of our flower beds had loads of weeds, and I turned over the mulch to prepare for fresh mulch in the process. It was a long process, but enjoyable. The weather has been fantastic.

I hadn't planned on planting anything other than moving my container herbs and irises into the ground, but the more we thought about it, the more we realized we did want some flowers. Having only owned irises and bougainvillea--and my cooking herbs--I'm not much of a landscaper. It's all overwhelming to me. What can be planted that will survive? I don't have much experience with plants outside of horticulture class at A&M--my childhood ventures into gardening were all a failure. Black thumb Abby here. But hey, my herbs are doing pretty well.

We enlisted Sharon, my mother-in-law, to help us choose plants and install them. She was such a trooper! We went to Redenta's nearby for the plants. After picking up some plants and odds n ends, we got to planting. Well... preparing the ground, and planting. Zach meanwhile ripped up three bushes we had growing along the side of our driveway to make way for ROSES! After many, MANY hours, Sharon and I got all the plants in the front placed in the ground. The next day, she came back and helped pulled up the whole back section of some kind of ivy that was getting bedraggled, and that housed tons of bugs I'm sure. We spent all morning preparing the ground back there, and the afternoon planting. Zach and I finished up with fresh mulch all around. We were totally wiped out after all of that, but it makes me so so happy to see our pretty flowers around our home. Crossing fingers that I can keep them going. Wish me luck!!


Here are some photos of the flowers and everything.

I replanted my irises in front of our office. Crossing fingers they will bloom now that they have sun and better soil. Also planted purple queen and lantana.

We planted white, pink and blue hydrangeas on the side of the house next to the porch. They're supposed to get 3-5 feet tall and wide. I can't wait to see them grow and bloom. I'm the most worried about their hardiness, but they are in mostly shade and I'll water them a lot.

More lantana and purple queen in front of the porch.

In front of the garage, we planted purple queen and knockout roses. So pretty!

One of the knockout roses 

Beside the house next to the driveway, we planted three rose bushes that produce beautiful scented roses we can cut. We can see these from our bedroom. I love walking by them and smelling their blooms. Also note--used to have a row of waist-high bushes here. Zach took them out!

Belinda's Dream

David Austin Golden Celebration - this one is getting an iron trellis to climb on soon!

Chrysler Imperial

We moved all my herbs to the back beside the kitchen. I hope they do well here--I've never put my herbs in the ground.

Sweet little celosia. We interspersed these with purple fountain grass and lantana along the back flower bed. They look like troll doll hair to me. *love*

Lantana

All this used to be yucky ivy, overgrown grass and wobbly bricks. Now it's a nice flower bed with planter's stone, mulch and pretty flowers! Such an improvement!

I can't think my mother-in-law enough for her help. It was a lot of work but definitely worth it. Everything but the celosia is perennials, so... if I don't kill them, we should have them for several years at least! We love looking at our pretty flowers! Y'all should stop by to see them. :-)

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.