s/v Kaleo

About a week to go till we welcome our little skipper. And about a week to go till we close on our new house. In the midst of it all, I love that this man continues to make our life together one grand adventure!

I am feeling the love from this whole pregnancy thing.

While there are certainly more restless nights, moments of discomfort, and a permanent reservation at the nearest restroom, there have been a plethora of perks that leave me feeling humbled and grateful for this entire experience. From the encouragement, gifts and prayers of our huge-hearted friends and family to standing prenatal massage appointments (it’s wellness people, wellness) and from all access passes at favorite restaurants to special mommy-to-be parking (thank you, Whole Foods and baby stores), I have nothing but a very full heart from it all.

Now, one would think that with both of us being in marketing we would be immune to the promptings of “Push Presents” and “Babymoons” (not a reference to a part of fetal anatomy, but rather a honeymoon-like trip that expectant couples take before the birth of a child). I mean, come on, these ideas seem like “Hallmark holidays” that would come up as ways to generate additional revenue for clients. However, blame it on the hormones and excitement, but we went for both.

First, the captain completely surprised me with a fancy pants DSLR camera and complimenting gear to capture sweet memories and new adventures to come.

We made the most of a recent road trip by carving out some time for a little pre-baby R&R in one of our favorite places – Charleston, SC.

And in other news, we’ve bought a house! Long story short, we were perfectly content bringing the little one home to our downtown condo when Matt stumbled upon a house that went on the market a couple of Sundays ago. We checked it out that day, put an offer on it on Monday, offer accepted on Tuesday, finances approved on Wednesday, great inspection that Saturday and we’re just out of our options period. Have I mentioned that our closing date coincides with our baby’s due date! Why not make an adventure of it all, right?

Why now? Mostly because we want our little one to be near family and friends for her first few years, it’s less than five miles from Matt’s office, in a great neighborhood within the city, is move-in ready (just completely remodeled by a reputable custom homebuilder), and is an equity play for us to be able to sell or rent to go cruising again.

Of course, I haven’t even mentioned that greatest “perk” of all – that we’ll soon be bringing home one of the greatest blessings we could ever be given. Thank you, Lord.

Project make-a-mobile was recently in full swing as the captain transformed a thoughtful nautical diaper cake gift into the sweetest crib eye candy for our little skipper!

The bump at 32 weeks on the set of FC Kids’ “Port of Call”

We’re continuing to take each new week as it arrives and look forward to meeting our little skipper soon.

We truly have the most thoughtful, generous, fun and creative family and friends! In the months leading up to the arrival of our baby girl, we have been blessed with some very sweet and meaningful baby showers.

They began a few months ago when I visited one of my dearest friends and new mom, Jenny, in Sweden. While there, and to my complete surprise, her and her family threw me a little American shower where we were given unique and traditional Swedish toys, books and clothes. So thoughtful!

Soon after, my Mom and Nana hosted a hometown baby shower and brunch for the ladies in, and closest with, our family. Every detail of their planning and hosting created a sweet, elegant, and truly perfect celebration.

And just the weekend before, a few of my closest girlfriends threw a fun shower for the Dallas girlfriends. They transformed our condo’s clubhouse into a pink and navy nautical wonderland where we enjoyed catching up and opening gifts over delicious bites and refreshing sips.

Lastly, we were also treated to a shared shower during our recent family reunion in North Carolina. There, we celebrated the upcoming arrival of three new babies entering the family within three months of each other as Matt’s brother and cousin’s wives are also expecting.

So, once again we are humbled by the generosity and thoughtfulness of loved ones near and far. Thank you all!

Today we got to peek in on our little skipper!

At 28 and a half weeks in utero, she’s still confirmed as a GIRL, is weighing in at just under three pounds and measuring about 15 inches from head to heels in length. All fantastic numbers aside, she looks like a perfect sleeping angel to us! (For the best view, tilt your head to the right.)

At just over 7 months along, we’re amazed at how quickly the time seems to be passing. I’m feeling well and still pretty comfortable as the Texas summer heat starts to set in. Lacing up the ole tennis shoes is starting to be somewhat entertaining (for Matt mostly) as is getting close enough to the bathroom counter to put on makeup in the mirror.

I’ve held off as long as possible on loading up on maternity clothes but I finally broke down and bought a great pair of white skinny jeans (ohmygoodness that elastic waistband get up is AWESOME), a couple of dresses, shorts and tops. These should give her (and me) some growing room over the next couple of months.

Other than that, we’ve been keeping busy with traveling to visit family and friends, being baby showered with love, prepping the nursery with essentials, and overall absorbing as much as possible from attending childbirth and parenting classes to reading, browsing, listening to and watching the myriad of resources that show up daily. For every moment, we are immensely grateful.

This past week I began my “training” by attending Daddy Boot Camp at our hospital.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a pretty candid and casual forum led by a “veteran dad.”  He took us through the basics like changing a diaper and securing the car seat to more advanced techniques of swaddling and burping while protecting your work shirt. One particular highlight might have been the dude who was two days away from his wife being induced. This poor guy was scared out of his mind and it left me thinking, “I wonder if I’ll be like that when we’re two days away.” Only two and half months left to find out.

Most of it was common sense but I walked away with a few interesting tips:

• Bring a book to the hospital, as there is likely to be some down time
• Pack a pillow for myself, the extra ones at the hospital are terrible
• The key to swaddling is getting the first wrap tight
• After  unfastening diaper, wait a moment before you take it off. It will most likely save you from getting peed on.
• The technique of wiping a little girl is important – always wipe front to back
• I will get poop on my face

Have you seen this movie trailer? If not, it’s worth a quick watch!

Today, a dear girlfriend, who is expecting her first little boy in a WEEK, and I took our bumps about town for some shopping, walking and this relatable lighthearted comedy, What to Expect When You’re Expecting. The movie, based on the mega popular pregnancy manual, follows the story of five couples and their challenges with impending first-time parenthood. For us, its timely relatability was the perfect was to spend the afternoon together.

This weekend we traveled to Austin to celebrate the marriage of one of my dearest friends, Soumya and her new husband, Jesse!

Just back from a really nice visit to one my dearest friends whom I’ve known since grad school and someone whom I’ve seen a lot of this gorgeous world with.

Jenny (aka “La GG” or “the Greek Goddess”, a moniker adopted from our Mediterranean adventures) and I made a pact over a decade ago to travel somewhere new (and fabulous) each year and we’ve done a darn good job of keeping that commitment over time. This year was no exception as I was happy to pack my little in utero passenger for her for first international visit to Scandinavia.

All told, the time was well spent playing, hugging, visiting, walking, shopping, eating, laughing, and loving life with my two favorite Swedish gals, Jenny and her and Morgan’s little Emmy.

20 weeks down. 20 weeks to go. We’re HALFWAY through our first pregnancy and are feeling GREAT and GRATEFUL!

As we march into month five, our growing baby girl is:

• The size of a cantaloupe
• Developing working taste buds (often overriding mom’s preferences)
• Starting to let us know how active she is in there
• Starting to limit mom on her choices of clothes in the closet
• Enjoying regular prenatal yoga classes (or at least mom really is)
• Getting nightly talks and prayers from dad (makes mom’s heart melt!)
• About to take off on her first international trip (in utero) to visit Auntie Jenny, Morgan and Baby Emmy for a week in Sweden
• Already being spoiled with generous gifts from loved ones near and far

Today, we got to see our baby again.

We got to hear the heartbeat. We got to see the little one in detail, from HER fingers to HER toes. We learned that everything is developing as it should, gained some reassurance, and found out that we’re having a healthy little GIRL!

We would have been overjoyed by the news of either gender, but there’s something precious about planning for pink. Above all, we are humbled and deeply grateful for this incredible blessing.

Do we want to know the gender of our baby?

You betcha we do. We are planners. In fact, it’s been in our career titles for as long as we’ve had careers so it seems natural for us to want to know as much information as possible. So, we’re pretty giddy that we’re about to find out if our growing sea monkey is a BOY or a GIRL?

Finding out the gender of our first baby in just a few short days has catapulted me into a reality of what’s to come. We’ll start thinking about his or her name, how to decorate the nursery and using real pronouns to refer to our newest addition.

While I really don’t have a feeling one way or the other on what we’re having, there have been a few fun predictions:

• A prenatal specialist we visited for some genetic testing (all came back clear) bet on us having a GIRL.
• During a recent family visit, my cousin introduced us to the “Liquid Drano Gender Prediction Test“. It pointed to PINK.
• The Chinese Gender Chart bet on BLUE.

An often-asked question these days is “Have you had any strange cravings?”

While I haven’t had any desires for weird combinations like pickles and ice cream, I do feel more in the mood for certain foods and beverages. But, it’s nothing so out of the ordinary that it could be defined as a “pregnancy craving” rather than simply a “Christie craving”. That being said, there have been a few must-haves and a few must-not-haves:

Cravings:

• Could eat for any meal, must have multiple times/week: Blue Fish Summer Rolls!
• Closely followed by Blue Fish‘s Sundae Roll (tempura shrimp, cream cheese, king crab meat, topped with crab stick, chili, eel and mayo sauce)
• Thai food (always been a fav but tastes even better these days)
• Fruit (grapes, all citrus, watermelon, cantaloupe, apples, any really)
• Belly-Bars (S’More to Love is my fav)
• Pirates Booty (all natural, puffed puffed rice and corn snack)
• Coconut Water (delish, chock full of calcium and minerals, more electrolytes than packaged sports drinks, more potassium than a banana)
• Starbucks Carmel Brûlée Latte (1/2-caff, soy milk, no whip)
• Fat Straws Soy Chai Bubble Tea
• Pink Berry frozen yogurt
• Taco Bell Nacho Supreme (I crave it, baby doesn’t, baby often wins)
• Sleep (and lots of it)
• Prenatal massages
• Sailing (motor off, sails up, cool breeze and warm sunshine)

Aversions:

• Plain water (tastes like metal, though I chug through as much as possible)
• Most prenatal vitamins (so far, Nestabs seem to be the only ones staying down)
• Avocados (bummer since I l-o-v-e-d them before)
• Meat of any kind (while I didn’t prefer it pre-pregnancy, I loathe the thought of it these day)
• Taco Bell Nacho Supreme (I crave it, baby doesn’t, baby often wins)
• The registry (still too overwhelming)
• Housecleaning (says a lot coming from a supreme neat freak)

We’re soaring through our 16th week with gratitude for every moment as our little one continues to grow and develop.

I felt the first flutters of movement this week and it was another one of those moments where I’m like, “Is this real?” And it is. It is real and amazing and scary and thrilling all at the same time. It’s surreal to think about this avocado-sized person floating around inside me. Here are a few more points on our progress.

• 1 trimester down, 2 to go
• 5 pregnancy/parenting books on the nightstand
• 0 of those books read (though several started)
• 6 ultrasounds
• 1200 (give or take a couple) trips to bathroom
• 8 names seriously considered
• 6 names seriously eliminated
• 4 brands of prenatal vitamins tried (still looking for THE one)
• 1 prenatal massage enjoyed immensely (thank you, Crystal!)
• 1 bizarre pregnancy dream
• 5 months till we get to meet the little one in person

We’re starting to round out our first trimester!

This week’s check-up fell on the day after Valentine’s Day. We couldn’t have asked for a more heartwarming gift than to hear our little one’s healthy heartbeat (160 bpm) and see lots of growth since our last ultrasound. Baby Butcher is looking a lot more like a baby these days and less like a frog/bat child from the last image.

While I can’t feel its movement yet, the doctor had quite the challenge in getting still images for measurements (and a healthy dose of entertainment) as this kiddo had LOTS of energy, squirming about and flailing its arms around during the ultrasound. Definitely our child.

Now that we’re 12 weeks along, we’re feeling more comfortable/ready to share with the family. Should be fun to see their reactions.

Once the family knows, we’ll start sharing with more friends in a few weeks.

We had a GREAT and reassuring appointment today. Heartbeat is strong, measurements on track, and we could even see the little sea monkey already squirming around during the ultrasound (though I can’t feel it quite yet).

God is SO GOOD. We’re still taking it a week at a time and are looking forward to sharing our news soon.