It's a GIRL!!!

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I know I haven't written a lot about this pregnancy (mainly because I haven't been sitting down to blog a ton lately), but we are just about halfway through and I thought it was time for an update!

 

Baby Reese #2 has been confirmed now (multiple times) to be a GIRL! We are beyond excited to be able to experience all of the wonderful differences between our little guy and this little lady. My husband is really hoping for a daddy's girl and I'm looking forward to all things girly! Matthew still has no idea what's going on and that's ok. We figure that he'll get it in time.

 

Our little girl is doing well and there hasn't been any drama this time around which we are SO thankful for. We have some extra precautions that the doctors are taking due to having a late pre-term last time, but I'll go into that in another post. Today we had our anatomy scan and every thing looks good, but they were unable to get a good picture of a couple of things so we get to repeat it in a month! I'm definitely not sad to get to see her again.

 

I've been feeling a lot of movements the past couple of days consistently and that's been great. The movements certainly can't be felt from the outside yet, but I can't wait to be able to have Phil and Matthew feel the baby move too. Our cat just loves snuggling with me even more now and is very insistent on being on or next to my belly.

 

I'm showing quite a bit already and I definitely don't mind it. The hip pain comes and goes, but that's to be expected. I tend to get pretty uncomfortable carrying and holding our little guy so he's just going to have to work with me for a while and we'll be working on his patience.

 

We are definitely still praying for a healthy baby and mom this time around and would love to have as many prayers as we can get! We're doing well and we pray it continues.

 

Being a Homemaker

Other than teaching, I always knew I wanted to stay at home with our children one day. I had it in my head that I would absolutely love it, my house would be picked up, kids happy, and I would have dinner ready around the time my husband came home. After all, I love to cook, have tons of experience with kids, and like schedules and routines. Then life happened.

Matthew was six months old when we moved into this house. He was super fussy all day long and I was exhausted. Our house still has unpacked boxes and making dinner has been hit or miss. Let's not talk about a cleaning schedule at this point.

My husband has been great at helping to pick up the slack, but it's still not enough. I get overwhelmed and nothing gets done. I've been told to just start with one room, but that's not working. I've been told to read my Bible and it will help. Everyone has a way to "help" without actually coming over and actually helping.

Now that Matthew is older, I'm working on doing more little things that will make a difference over time. Today, I moved the toys we have saved for his birthday into one room and put all of our extra paper goods away so they're not just sitting in the middle of the basement. I still have a lot to do, but I'm doing something.

I want to say that I absolutely love being a homemaker and some days I do, but most days I'm struggling and that's ok too. I don't have to be perfect, I just have to keep going and moving forward. One day, I will look back and it laugh. One day the boxes will be unpacked and I'll have other stressors to worry about, but right now that's where I am.

I'm Back

It's been a while since I last wrote on this blog and there's a good reason. The holidays were so busy and filled with tons of sewing for craft shows and custom orders, travelling to visit family, Christmas, and keeping up with our little man!

Now that the holidays are over, I'm trying to focus on organize our home more and get over this cold that I can't seem to shake.

Matthew is doing well and really developing his personality. He's sensitive, independent, sassy, and sweet. He still refuses to walk and he's a week shy of being a year and a half old! He's very persistent and likes to do things on his own time frame so we'll just have to see when he decides to walk.

He also has decided that he needs a morning rest or nap again and I'm not upset about it! I love that he needs his down time just like his momma. He just sleeps so much better when it's split into two naps.

We have started cloth diapering at home again and I really like it. We use disposables when we're out and that works for us. I'm excited to try a couple of new diapers out soon that I've purchased and see what fits him the best, but honestly, with the right "fit" all of them work just fine.

The winter here has been a little cold with not much snow which is kind of sad. I love seeing the snow and don't mind the cold with the snow, but without it? Eh. It just causes me to freeze and cough. At least it could be pretty!

21 Day Fix Round 1 Results

I'm a week late in posting this, but I'm happy that I'm done with the first round and 1/3 of the way done with the second round!

In 21 days I lost 5 pounds and I am down 10.75" overall with 4 of those inches down in my waist!

I'd love to say that I have more energy, but I'm just not there yet, but I really do love this program. It's an easy to follow program that gives flexibility with the diet, but great structure and clear guidelines. I am able to eat food I actually like (hello turkey burgers and chili) and still lose weight. I did have to give up my beloved condiments and sauces, except mustard, but I'm really loving the results and I really don't miss them too much.

I am already in my second round and the only change is that I'm using the 21 day fix eating plan with the focusT25 workouts. I like HIIT workouts and it's less pressure on my wrist so that's what I'm trying out this round!

21 Day Fix Week 2

The second week of the 21 Day Fix is done and I have already seen some awesome results! Not only am I already stronger this week than last week, but I fit into pants that wouldn't even button before I started this challenge!

I am pretty strict with my diet and making sure that I exercise every day like the program states, but that doesn't mean that I eat grilled chicken and steamed broccoli all day every day. In fact, I love to eat chili, quesadillas, and turkey burgers on my diet! Of course, I add those in to my daily allowance and I'm seeing great results!

I have shakeology every day after I exercise and honestly thought how crazy it was that people were seriously spending so much money each month on this shake when you can just eat right and use protein powder, but I have to admit how wrong I was. The other drinks used to make me sick after a while and I didn't feel any better after drinking them. With shakeology I actually have a good spurt of energy for a while and my sensitive stomach isn't bothered by it at all. Plus, the chocolate flavor isn't gross like so many other protein drinks!

I can't wait to officially weigh in and measure in a week and see what my results are! I've been working hard and it's paying off. I even signed up for the next challenge group that starts the day after this one ends so no break for me!

I really love how I'm eating and the focus I have on this diet/exercise plan. It's really been such a positive change for me!

Weekends

This was a really rough week, but in spite of it all, I'm really thankful that it's Friday and we can look forward to the weekend! I love what weekends have in store for us as a family and getting to spend that extra time with my husband always makes my heart happy.

Weekends for us usually means...
-Meal Planning for the week, especially now that we're doing the 21 day fix!
-Grocery shopping. We like to do this as a family so that we can spend more time together and my husband can pick his snacks for work in case he forgot something.
-Chores. Mowing the lawn, laundry, and general clean up.
-Church. Sunday mornings we always go to church and if I'm really lucky, I get to see one of my best friends there.
-Family time. This is by far my favorite thing about the weekend. Knowing that I get to spend as much time as possible with my two favorite guys is just what I need at the end of a long week.

What do you usually do on the weekends?

21 Day Fix Week 1

Let's start this off by saying I am SO glad to have started this program. Seriously, it has already done  so much in a week and is definitely doable!

Here's how the program works...Basically, you workout every day to a 30 minute video. There are 7 different videos and you do one each day of the week. As for the diet, you are allotted so many "containers" to eat each day and your goal is to eat all of the food that corresponds with the containers each day and drink half of your body weight in water! Of course, you want to try to eat 5-6 "meals" per day.

For example, I get 5 Green, 5 Red, 4 Yellow, 3 Purple, 1 Blue, 1 Orange, and 5 teaspoons.

Green: Non-starchy veggies
Red: Lean proteins
Yellow: Carbs and starchy veggies
Purple: Fruit
Blue: Healthy Fats
Orange: Seeds/Healthy dressings
Teaspoons: Nut butters/oils

As you can see, I don't starve and eat a balanced diet. The focus is on less-processed foods and portion control along with exercise which is a proven method of weight loss. I am using Shakeology as part of the program once per day and it took a while to get used to, but I have to say I really enjoy having it after my workout as my "snack."

 

This was one day after my Pilates Fix workout.

 

 

The workouts have modifications that are really helpful and are still pretty challenging. I was pretty sore the first few days and my hamstrings are pretty sore today after Yoga Fix yesterday.

 

In Week 1...

 

I am already down a pant size! Last week I wore a size 18 jeans with the "hairband trick" to church and this week, I wore size 16 jeans with no hairband!

 

I can also feel more muscles in my arms and legs which is really exciting.

 

I'm still pretty tired, but I don't feel like I need a nap every day anymore! I'm really hoping my energy kicks in soon.

 

I can't wait to see what the next 2 weeks have in store for me on this program!