Week 24: Making Room for Baby

Week 24 is officially the OMG I’m so preggy! stage. I feel great and my belly isn’t big enough to feel extra pressure, aches, or feel much different at all. But when I look in the mirror or see a photo of myself I sometimes do a double-take. Whoa! Is that me?? Baby B is growing so much and so fast! I think he went through a growth spurt between weeks 20-24! Must be all that vegan ice cream. 🙂

These past two weeks have been busy! We nearly finished painting, furnishing and decorating the baby room, finished our registry, hired a doula, and sent truckloads of stuff to Goodwill to make room for Baby B. We even squeezed in a fun trip to Tahoe with friends.

I know we’re a little early with the baby room, but our furniture arrived a lot earlier than expected, so we figured we might as well get cranking! We’re heading on our babymoon in Hawaii next weekend so it will be great to come home and not have to worry about major projects around the house. We still have a lot to do, but it feels amazing knowing that it’s all coming together so well.

To come up with the vision for the baby room, we started by looking at sample layouts on Pinterest and Pottery Barn Kids. We like the simple, clean and classic look, with pops of color and cute decor. And then we started a Wish List on Amazon for different products that we liked that aligned with our navy/gray/white color scheme and vision. It was the same process we used when we furnished and decorated our condo 2 years ago. And then Mark put together a vision board in powerpoint to pull together all of our items in one central page.

On one of our BuyBuy Baby shopping sprees, we fell in love with a furniture set and both of us, almost in unison, said “that’s the one!”. And then we sat in about 10 glider/recliner chairs and picked one that felt like sitting on a cloud. The other big decision we made was on the wall decals. We loved these ones with branches and koalas and the baby animals. So, to make the white color pop on our white wall, we decided to paint the wall gray. Mark did all of the painting, and it turned out great!! More photos to come once the room is complete!

As mentioned above, we spent a wonderful weekend in Lake Tahoe with some friends at a cabin on the West Shore. We got married in Tahoe last year so it’s always special to go back and reminisce. The boys biked around the lake for 72 miles while the girls did a 9-mile hike around Emerald Bay. We celebrated with beers (sparkling water for me!) and sandwiches on the beach listening to music and enjoying the sunshine. Tahoe is so relaxing I love it.

On Sunday, Mark and I went for a short 30 minute run which was hard. Between the thinner air at altitude, and this baby belly, I found I had to stop a few times to catch my breath. But mostly it felt great to sweat and run on the trails. After the run we went for a ~45 min swim in the lake. The water temp was so warm I didn’t even wear a wetsuit (not that it would’ve fit anyway!).

It felt incredible to feel the cold water and just swim for the fun of it. I could’ve stayed in the water all afternoon! I hear that swimming during pregnancy is the best since it’s low impact and a total body workout, so I definitely plan to visit the local pool (and Tahoe!) more often. Exercise, in general, has been a great way to stay energized, healthy and strong during pregnancy, and I know it’ll help for labor and caring for Baby B.

The other thing that happened this week was I said farewell to my spin class. I have had so much fun teaching spin this past year as a fun side hustle. It sparked a passion inside me for group fitness that I didn’t even know existed! Technically I could’ve taught longer since I feel great, but they found my replacement so it was time to pass the torch. I hope to stick with group fitness in some way in life — either teaching, coaching or mentoring athletes or those who want to live a more active life.

Finally, I have to brag about Mark for a bit. He has been beyond amazing throughout this whole journey and especially the last couple weeks. He did a lot of the baby room planning while his work was a little slower and mine was busier. When I came home at night he would show me all of his incredible progress — from painting the wall and installing the baby monitor to fixing the crib and meticulously placing the decals. We do all of the planning together, but he’s been leading the execution. He is giddy with excitement for Baby B and has been so helpful around the house, which (among many other clues) tells me he’s going to be the best dad ever.

Next up on our to-do list is to do some car shopping, pack for our babymoon, help with baby shower planning as needed, and research the pros/cons of daycare vs nanny shares.