Our Pregnancy Journey - Month 4 (Gender Reveal)
MONTH 4:
Baby is the size of a jalapeño > beet > avocado > pickle > pomegranate
WEEKLY RECAPS:
WEEK 13:
Baby is about 3 inches, the size of a jalapeño.
No major changes to report - nausea is still present but excited to hopefully be out of this stage with the perks of the 2nd trimester soon!
We photographed one of our dear friend's newborn photos last week. They have one of the cutest families ever and have been such great examples of how to raise a family and be Godly parents. My husband was an awesome assistant / kid entertainer for most of the session. Here is a sneak peek from their session...
We also got in plenty of snuggle and kiddo time, and of course loved every minute of it! Looks like Hubs is a natural with the baby.
CRAVINGS:
Going back to my childhood roots, cravings have been Lucky Charms and blintzes...
WEEK 14:
Baby is about 3.5 inches, the size of a beet. Baby has also doubled in weight since last week. My lower right half of my back has definitely started to ache, but have found that sleeping with a snoogle has definitely helped... though the snoogle has taken up half of the bed!
CRAVINGS:
Hawaiian rolls are as good as candy in my book... trying to limit them though since I know these aren't the most nutritious for me...
WEEK 15:
Baby is about 4 inches long, the size of an avocado.
We are headed to Kansas City for the week, and then Omaha the next week for work and also to see family and friends in both cities. We had the early blood work test done to find out the gender early so that we could have a little reveal with my family back in Omaha, which we plan to do over Easter.
The day before we left, we received news that we would have to be out of our rental within 1-2 months since the owners were wanting to sell now, being that their realtor put a bug in their ear that it is currently a prime "seller's market". Nothing like a little stressful situation to start off the trip!
GIF compliments of GIPHY.com
It also turned out to be an eventful flight as Miya and I ended up getting stuck at the airport due to weather with an almost 4 hour delay. Thankfully she behaved like a champ and she even got upgraded to first class and had some salmon as a reward. #nevertooshytoaskforupgrades
OVERALL FEELS:
Still nauseous but it's getting more manageable, thank the Lord. I was really hoping for that much talked about "pregnancy glow", but the only thing currently glowing is the bathroom nightlight since I'm still making frequent trips to potty throughout the night. :) My skin is a little out of control right now with blemishes, probably due to all the dairy I've been eating lately... (see "cravings" below...) My doctor warned me, but I failed to listen to his warnings and instead have been giving into my cravings...
CRAVINGS:
Any and all things dairy including but not limited to fresh mozzarella cheese, cream cheese on bagels, nachos, ice cream, creamy lobster bisque, basically all the unhealthy dairy options possible...
WEEK 16:
Baby is about 4 1/2 inches long, the size of a pickle.
For our pregnancy announcement, we decided to include our fur baby in our pregnancy announcement... after all she was our first baby, and now will be a big sister.
Since we made the announcement on Easter, we included a little Easter announcement too.
We found out the gender....... !!! We are keeping the gender reveal to family for right now but plan on revealing the gender to friends as well in the next few weeks.
We actually had our fur baby take a guess first by placing a treat on a pink piece of paper for a girl and a blue piece of paper for a boy. We did this twice (the night before for a trial run and the next day, on Easter). We released our hound and let her choose which treat to go for. Crazy enough, each time she chose a girl... We'll see if she's right...
We also made cupcakes for our family with the gender color (either pink or blue filling) on the inside of the cupcake. We frosted them with white frosting and then added either pink or blue sprinkles (or both blue and pink sprinkles, which you'll see that Grams ended up choosing that one...).
As you can tell, my brother is the investigator of the family as he thought he'd be able to tell early with his special tools... Even with a magnifying glass, early detection wasn't allowed since we frosted them well enough to cover up all the evidence.
We then let each of our family members pick either a blue sprinkled cupcake or a cupcake with pink sprinkles, depending on which gender they guessed it would be.
And for the results...
Thanks to my awesome Aunt Karen for giving her commentary during the video... Apparently Miya has a sixth sense and knew the gender before the rest of us! She was right both times!
Since hubs' family was in South Carolina, we also had a bakery make cupcakes for them with the filling revealing the gender.
We face-timed with them to see their reactions. Action shot of Hubby's family with their cupcakes:
Now that we know it's a girl, I guess it's time we can announce our baby girl's name... We've had a baby girl and baby boy name picked out since last year, ever since we started trying to have a baby. And for the name announcement, baby girl will be named Everley Jewell. I've loved the name ever since I heard it over 7 years ago at a wedding (the flower girl's name was Everly). Jewell is the last name of my mom and grandparents, who are some of the most important people in my life, so I wanted to keep the name going, in honor of them.
We are beyond excited to meet you Everley Jewell!
CUPCAKE TUTORIAL:
For a quick tutorial on making cupcakes, here's what we did:
1.) Mix up two different batches of cupcakes (ex. Funfetti and Strawberry for the girl).
Note: You could also just use a filling (like strawberry, blueberry jelly or other filling) instead of a second cupcake mix for the gender reveal filling.
2.) We then filled the cupcake tins with 1/3 Funfetti cupcake mix.
3.) Next we used this Wilton dessert decorator to squeeze in a little pink strawberry cupcake mix into the center of each cupcake, being careful not to get any on the sides. Then we baked the cupcakes according to the directions.
4.) We then frosted the cupcakes with white frosting. Finally we added pink sprinkles to half of the cupcakes and blue sprinkles to the other cupcakes so that people could guess which gender they thought it was.
WEEK 17:
Baby is about 5 inches, the size of a pomegranate.
Nausea seems to finally be mostly gone! #PTL Now I'm just eagerly awaiting that energy burst and the fun nesting stage... If only we could figure out our home and moving situation so the nursery decorating and nesting can begin!
In anticipation of my baby bump growing, I made a home-made concoction of natural cocoa butter as I didn't want a bunch of extra additives and unnatural ingredients. I also picked up some bio oil at Target that a good friend recommended to me for stretch marks.
COCOA BUTTER BODY BUTTER:
INGREDIENTS:
- 8 oz unrefined cocoa butter
- 4 oz unrefined shea butter
- 1/2 cup coconut oil
- 1 to 2 T cold-pressed, unrefined jojoba oil (optional)
- 1/2 to 3/4 T essential oil (optional)
STEPS:
1. Measure out cocoa butter and shea butter. I used the whole package of cocoa butter and half the package of shea butter.
2. Cut cocoa butter and shea butter into smaller pieces so that they melt faster.
3. Use a double broiler (if you have one) to melt the cocoa butter and shea butter.
NOTE: I wasn’t fancy enough to have one of these already in my kitchen so I improvised by first boiling water in a soup pot and then adding the shea butter and cocoa butter in a glass measuring bowl, and inserting the bowl into the boiling water. After the water was boiling, I turned the temperature down to low / medium low. I then let them melt (it took about 10 minutes).
4. Add the coconut oil, jojoba oil, and essential oil.
NOTE: Essential oils are optional, but help minimize the smell of the cocoa butter. I used lavender, but sweet orange and peppermint are other nice options to add. Just make sure the essential oil(s) that you choose are safe for pregnancy.
5. Continue stirring occasionally until all the ingredients are melted and well mixed.
6. Let the mixture cool slightly, then transfer the mixture into another container with a lid for storage.
NOTE: I used a glass container from HomeGoods.
7. Place the mixture in the fridge until mixture is of desired thickness and consistency.
CRAVINGS:
Candy... especially Kit Kats and Snickers... Geez Louise. I need to get a hold of these cravings before they get a hold of me! Too late!!
Click Below to Read MORE:
