• Baby,  Life,  Pregnancy

    Pregnancy Update: Weeks 19-28

    Even though I turned 34 weeks this week I still wanted to update how my pregnancy was during the weeks that I missed writing about it here.


    20 weeks

    Size of the baby: At 19 weeks baby was the size of a mango – 5.98 inches and 8.5 ounces. at 28 weeks baby was the size of an eggplant – 14.8 inches and 2.2 pounds. Holy growing!

    Total weight gain: 19 pounds.

    Sleep: Around 25 weeks I was waking up around 4 or 5 most nights and not being able to fall back asleep. I remember this happening with Shane too. I think it’s a combination of pregnancy hormones and my brain not being able to relax about things that need to get done. At 27 weeks sleep started to get a little better but I was still waking up to flip over a lot.

    24 weeks

    Best moment this month: Finding out we are having another sweet boy! I’m so excited to meet him and learn his personality. I’m also so excited for Shane and this baby to have each other. They will be exactly 2.5 years apart so it will be really special to see them grow up together.

    28 weeks

    Symptoms:

    19 weeks: Feeling extra tired this week. Acne seems to be clearing up a bit. Still craving sugar but not as bad.

    21 weeks: I got super sick for three days. I had to take Tylenol basically around the clock to keep the fever down. I didn’t have much of an appetite, but I could feel baby moving around like crazy the whole time I was sick, which was very reassuring.

    22 weeks: Really no symptoms which is such a blessing! I am so so thankful! Baby is moving around and its so much fun to feel! Gums are sensitive and swollen again.

    25 weeks: Baby moves so much more than Shane did. (I also had an anterior placenta with Shane and don’t with this baby so that could be why.) Gums are still sensitive and swollen. (Comes and goes.) Having a hard time sleeping. Can’t get comfortable. Feel very sore. Wake up around 4-5 most nights and can’t fall back asleep. Trying to eat more greens. Back is killing me after working on Etsy all day.

    26 weeks: Sharp pain under ribs a few times. Sides of abs feel really sore and like they’re stretching a lot for a day or two. Sleep is still hit or miss. Always waking up to flip over.

    27 weeks: Feeling pretty big. Sleeping slightly better. Still waking up to flip over a bunch though.

    28 weeks: Feeling very tired this week. My body especially legs and feet can really feel the extra weight. I had my first in person doctors appointment this week since the pandemic started. I got my Tdap shot, got checked for gestational diabetes (didn’t have it woohoo!), and found out I’m not anemic! It was weird being at the doctors with a mask on and being a little scared of getting sick.

    And just for fun, here is my pregnancy updates with Shane during this time period: 19 weeks, 20 weeks, 21 weeks, 22 weeks, 23 + 24 weeks, 25 + 26 weeks, 27 + 28 weeks.


    Things changed a lot these ten or so weeks. At the start of it, I wasn’t feeling too big but over the course of the weeks going by I started to really feel the extra weight. Also the pandemic started during this weeks, which was a little scary. I had one or two video appointments instead of going into the office. They just asked me to check my weight and blood pressure at home. This pregnancy has dragged on a lot because of being quarantined at home for so long. I will be back soon to update you on weeks 29-34 soon!

    If you’re pregnant too let me know how you’ve been and how it’s been being pregnant during a pandemic. I’d love to hear from you!

  • Life

    Currently: June 2020

    Hi friends! Long time, no talk! Let’s catch up shall we?

    We’ve been so busy preparing for baby and trying to stay caught up with Etsy orders, there has been no time at all to blog! I’m so thankful for those blessings though! But now that I feel like I can breathe for a minute, I want to catch up my little blog.

    I’m planning on writing a few updates on my pregnancy sometime in the near future. But let’s start out with something easy, a currently post.


    feeling: so beyond excited that in the next 6(ish) weeks we will be meeting our second baby boy! Giving birth during a pandemic is still a little scary but I’m trusting that God will get us through.

    wearing: comfy clothes. I bought these really comfy, technically pajama shorts from Target a few weeks ago. They are seriously the most comfortable shorts I’ve ever owned and super cute to wear around the house too.

    buying: new furniture to prepare for the baby! We bought a dresser for the boys’ eventual shared room (Shane’s room currently) and a glider for our room this week! I’m so excited to get them and start breaking out the baby stuff from the attic so soon!

    craving: oh boy. basically anything that’s not healthy lol. I’ve been particularly loving strombolis as of right now though. YUM.

    discussing: how black lives matter. Tommy and I have been reading, learning, and discussing how we have not been aware or paying attention enough in the past and are committing to doing our part in changing the state of things in this country. We have a lot to learn and do but it starts with us.


    linking up with anne. come join us.

  • Home,  Life

    Life Lately During a Pandemic + A Gender Reveal

    Hi friends. It’s been a while. I just wanted to stop in and share how we’ve been doing during this crazy time and see what you guys have been up to.


    Well actually first, let’s start off with the elephant in the room. I’m so sorry to leave you guys hanging with the gender of Baby Zin 2! This is very silly but I didn’t get any pictures from our little gender reveal so I kept thinking that I was going to stage a picture or something so that I could post about it, but then everything happened with Covid-19 and I also just didn’t come up with any ideas for the picture. So instead of trying to make this perfect, let’s just share the video that we took and finally announce that Baby Zin 2 is a….

    boy! We’re going to have two little boys and we are so excited! Today is actually exactly three weeks until my due date, which is so crazy. We can’t wait to meet you baby boy!


    How we’re coping with living in a pandemic

    So now that I’ve finally filled you guys in, (😆) let’s get to what we’ve been up to during this pandemic. So for those of you who don’t know, we live in New Jersey, which is the second most affected state in the US. Our state is in near lockdown with many people out of work. Thankfully Tommy is still working though so our life hasn’t been affected too greatly. It definitely has been nerve-wracking though at times especially considering being pregnant and having a toddler.

    I do sometimes wonder if the nasty sickness that we had last month (that I mentioned in my last post) was the coronavirus. It happened the same week as we had confirmed cases in New Jersey. Testing was hard to access though so when I went to the doctors they weren’t testing anyone at that point. Hopefully sometime soon they’ll come out with an immunity test and we can find out.

    Either way though we are still being super cautious and Shane and I haven’t left the house basically at all. Tommy runs our errands with a face mask and hand sanitizer. We’ve also been doing grocery pickup or delivery to limit his time in the stores. Once anything comes into the house we wipe it down with Clorox wipes. We are doing everything we can and then trusting God with the rest.

    What We’ve Been Up To

    To be honest with you, we are homebodies to begin with so this hasn’t changed our world up too incredibly much. Although it is different because we can’t attend church or run to the store when we’re feeling tired of being in the house. We’ve been doing our best to stay busy anyway though.

    I thought I’d share what we’ve been up to so that we can have this to look back on and maybe give some ideas of things to do too.

    Lots of baking

    We’ve been eating at home a lot more, which has been kind of nice in it’s own way. Shane loves baking so we made cookies together one night. We also made our sweet puppy a birthday cake because her birthday was on Saturday. And I made homemade bagels, which were seriously amazing and am planning to make again soon.

    Some home projects

    I painted the windows in Shane’s room, which look so much better. I still have five more windows to do in the house before we’ve finally gotten rid of all of the brown. 😅

    I’ve also been really starting to feel the nesting bug come on again and am planning on getting to a few more home projects within the next month or so. I will try to remember to take pictures so I can share.

    Cuddling, singing, + crafting

    Basically we’ve just been keeping busy anyway we know how. We’ve been keeping up with our digital church services, which Shane has been loving. It’s been so cute to watch him sing and dance. I’m actually going to really miss being able to do that as a family when we do finally go back.

    We’ve been cuddling, watching movies a lot and doing some crafting to pass the time. We’ve also been going on some walks when the weather is nice enough to.


    Basically that’s been about it since I last posted. What have you guys been up to? How are you handling the pandemic? I’d love to hear from you!

  • Coffee Dates,  Pregnancy

    Let’s Have Coffee | Vol. 19

    If we were having coffee, I would most likely share with you why I’ve been MIA last week. Our house got hit with some nasty colds. On Thursday I was completely out of commission and had a fever all day. I decided to go to an urgent care and make sure it wasn’t the flu (which it wasn’t thankfully). I started to feel better on Friday and then woke up on Saturday with another fever and started feeling more and more sick as the day went on. Shane had also started a fever either Friday or Saturday (it’s really all a blur now) and was super sick with me all day Saturday and Sunday. I think the fact that the coronavirus is going around at the same time as all of this really didn’t help with moral and I was really scared with how sick we were. Fortunately our fevers finally broke on Monday and we are on the mend now and feeling much better!

    If we were having coffee, I’d probably mention how scary it is to be sick while pregnant. I would feel bad about talking about being sick for so long, but would really want to process everything I felt with someone. I know that Tylenol is “technically” safe for pregnant women to take but I had to take it basically around the clock for three days to keep my fever down (plus when I was sick around 14 weeks for a day) and it does scare me a little bit. In the grand scheme of things I do realize though that everything will be okay and I am just so thankful that we are healthy now and not needing medicine anymore! 😅

    If we were having coffee, I would likely want to change the subject to something much more positive! I’d share that another reason I’ve been a little less active on the blog is because our Etsy shop is doing so well right now! We are so excited and thankful because it really came at a time where the extra money is very helpful. It has been so fun and satisfying working on Etsy lately.

    If we were having coffee, I would share about how I will be 22 weeks pregnant on Thursday and how I can’t believe how fast this pregnancy is going! It’s so true how they say it’s so different than your first. There is just so much less time to think about being pregnant because of taking care of your first baby and everything else in your life. I would share about how we are thinking about having Shane and the new baby share a room when the new baby is around 6-8 months old. Shane will have just turned 3 at that point. I would ask if you have any advice on room sharing with a baby and a toddler. I am hopeful but also a little nervous about it because Shane is a very light sleeper. We do have a third bedroom, but it is upstairs so we could move Shane up there if all else fails.

    If we were having coffee, I would share that I am starting to feel a little bit overwhelmed with all the things I want to get done in the house before the baby arrives. I’m trying to remind myself that things don’t need to be perfect but it’s so difficult to really believe that!

    If we were having coffee, I would ask how you’ve been this past month and apologize about how I’m sort of all over the place right now. That’s just how my brain is at the moment. I’d love to hear what is new with you though!


    Linking up with LecyJoin us every second Tuesday for a coffee date!

  • Life

    February 2020: Whats Up Wednesday

    Or Thursday… whatever! 😉

    1. What We’re Eating This Week:

    source

    Lots of cake and takeout, haha! We’ve had a very busy week and have been celebrating finding out the gender of sweet Baby Zin #2. It’s definitely time to start reeling it back in though! Tonight I think were making our one of our staples, quesadillas.

    2. What I’m Reminiscing About:

    Our gender reveal with Shane! We just went to Baby Zin #2’s anatomy scan yesterday so it of course made me remember the day we went to Shane’s and had his gender reveal after. I can’t wait to share with you guys what baby is this time around! I’m still waiting on pictures from last night but will have the post up ASAP. I will most likely share on Instagram first though so if you want to know sooner follow me there!

    3. What I’m Loving:

    I’ve been starting to slowly start to get the house ready for the baby and last week or so I moved things around in the house and created this little “playroom” and I love how it turned out. It’s still a work in progress – I want to get little bins to put the toys in so it’s a little less messy looking and hang pictures and/or shelves above the cube organizer. It’ll be perfect for when we have two little ones wanting to play together to have a space for them.

    4. What We’ve Been Up To:

    Thankfully lots and lots of Etsy orders! We are so thankful for this little side business we have and are really looking forward to growing it more this year and adding new products hopefully soon. It definitely keeps us busy though!

    5. What I’m Dreading:

    Going food shopping! 🤣 We really need to do a big grocery shop and I just hate going lol I need to get my act together in this department.

    6. What I’m Working On:

    Getting the house in order for the baby, staying on top of Etsy orders, trying to be consistent with blogging. It definitely all keeps me busy.

    7. What I’m Excited About:

    Our new baby! Knowing the gender now really helps to try to picture how our lives will be once he/she is here. I’m so excited to meet our new little one!

    8. What I’m Reading/Watching:

    I’m still watching the same show as last month, but have been reading a lot more! I finished Truly, Madly, Guilty after like three days. It was super good. In a Dark, Dark Wood was also really good but predictable. And I just started The Girl on the Train so I can’t really say too much about that.

    9.What I’m Listening To:

    Lots of the Frozen 2 soundtrack and Disney movies to keep the toddler busy lol. Shane has been loving Lion King and Brother Bear lately. I’m also still listening to the same podcasts as last month too.

    10. What I’m Wearing:

    I finally bought some maternity clothes! I literally had nothing to wear haha! I got these tops from Old Navy and also a pair of maternity jeans. And I also bought a pair of maternity leggings from Pact.

    11. What I’m Doing This Weekend:

    We had a busy weekend last week and weekend so I think this weekend we will probably have a nice and slow weekend and recuperate from the business. Lots of resting and reading!

    12. What I’m Looking Forward To Next Month:

    This is probably a boring answer but I’m really looking forward to getting the house more in order and getting more things ready for the baby!


    Thanks for joining me this month friends! I’m linking up with Shay, come join us!

  • Pregnancy

    Pregnancy Update: Weeks 14-18

    Hi friends. Today I’m sharing how weeks 14-18 went. If you’re pregnant too, leave a comment with how you’re feeling and how far along you are!


    How far along? I turned 19 weeks today so this will be from 14 weeks to 18 weeks.

    Size of the Baby: Today he/she is the size of a mango – about 6 inches and 8.5 ounces.

    16 weeks

    Total Weight Gain: 10 pounds so far.

    Symptoms: Gum pain/swelling. Breaking out. Tummy issues. Pregnancy insomnia. Dry eyes. Really fun stuff lol. But other than that I had a lot more energy, especially in the beginning of the month. During weeks 14-15 I didn’t even feel pregnant because my belly was still small and I had so much more energy. As I’m progressing and my belly has definitely popped, I don’t have quite as much energy as I did, but still not too bad as long as I get a good nights sleep.

    Missing: My favorite Italian takeout that closed down! I crave foods so much while pregnant and I so wish I could order their baked ziti or chicken parm.

    Maternity clothes: I just ordered basically my first maternity clothes. I somehow made it through my pregnancy with Shane with none. The only thing I bought was two dresses with him. I ordered a pair of leggings, jeans, a cardigan, and two short sleeve tops. I’m expecting some of it not to fit though and that I’ll have to return some things. I’m so excited though because nothing fits right now. 😳

    Sleep: It’s really hit or miss. Occasionally I’ll wake up to pee and not be able to fall back asleep. I’ve made it through the night without having to pee at all a few times. Most nights though I wake up once to pee and then am able to go back to sleep.

    Best moment this month: Feeling the baby move for the first time! There was a few times around 15-16 weeks where I was pretty sure I felt the baby move but I wasn’t 100% sure. The night before I turned 17 weeks though I felt the baby move for sure and was able to poke back and the baby kept moving! It was so cool and I felt super connected to the baby.

    18 weeks

    Food cravings: Uh everything! Mostly carbs of course. Pasta. Pizza. Sugar. Nothing healthy lol. I’ve been eating something sweet after dinner every night. I was the same way when I was pregnant with Shane. I’m usually not really a sweats person but pregnancy really brings it out of me.

    Looking forward to: Our anatomy scan is next Wednesday! We are definitely finding out if the baby is a boy or girl and we are so excited. I’m also excited to get the house more in order. I’ve been nesting like crazy, I’ll have to share what I’ve done so far. Yesterday I basically changed everything around in our house. I moved Shane upstairs to his new room and made him a little playroom. I can’t wait to keep working on the house and see the progress.


    And just for fun, here are some of my pregnancy update with Shane: 14 weeks, 15 weeks, 16 weeks, 17 weeks, 18 weeks, + 19 weeks. My bump was so much smaller. I’ll share about baby’s gender next week for sure! I can’t wait!