I’m 7 weeks postpartum and finally feel like I’m ready to share the story of how our little girl came into the world. When I was pregnant and would speak to others about my birth preferences, the one thing I was repeatedly told was to remain flexible and understand that things don’t always go to plan. Boy were they right.

The last photo before I went into labor. I was 41 weeks and 2 days.

A Little Backstory.

When I was pregnant I spent a lot of time preparing for the birth of our daughter. I wanted to have a birth with the least amount of intervention possible, assuming she and I were both healthy and thriving. I read many books, medical trials, discussion boards, and evidence-based websites and articles. We hired a doula and trained for Hypnobirthing. We could have never anticipated a global pandemic that would prevent our doula from being in the hospital room during labor. Nonetheless, we felt well-prepared, educated, and armed with the knowledge to make informed decisions. Aside from a healthy baby and mamma, my most important birth preferences were to avoid a c-section, avoid an induction, avoid an epidural and I really wanted to have a happy birth memory.… Read more

Our little peanut is a month old so I thought I would share some of our favorite baby products that we use daily or at least super often. It was a bit of a learning curve being a first-time mamma figuring out what worked best, despite the research I did prior to babe’s arrival. If sharing can help even one fellow mamma, then I call that a win!

This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase using my link, I may receive a small commission for the referral. Thank you for your support! 

14 of Our Favorite Baby Products

SNOO – The SNOO is probably our favorite baby product. I can’t say enough good things about the SNOO. Shiloh has been a great sleeper overall and I’m convinced the SNOO has had something to do with it. We put her down while she’s drowsy but still awake and she is able to put herself to sleep – or the SNOO puts her to sleep, either way, it’s a win! It then soothes her to sleep if she gets fussy, helping her learn to self-soothe.… Read more

We’re 30 weeks pregnant at this point and officially in our last trimester. It has gone by much quicker than I anticipated and I can’t believe we get to meet our sweet little babe in 10ish weeks.

You can read more about our journey up to this point here.

A little disclaimer: I am obviously not a doctor, I’m just a pregnant woman doing what I believe is best for me, my baby and my family. My preferences may not be your preferences and my beliefs may not align perfectly with yours or your experience and that is ok! It’s a bit vulnerable to speak about my birth preferences, decisions and medical care, but here we are. Please be kind. 😉 

The Second Trimester

Overall, the second trimester treated me well. I hate to say that knowing that some women have a tough time throughout pregnancy. I experienced hip/sacrum pain, heartburn, headaches and nasal congestion but none are constant and symptoms come and go. I was sleeping better, waking up less at night (that has changed since I entered the third trimester but I’ll save that for later haha!),… Read more

I feel so blessed and excited to announce that my hubby Mike and I are expecting! I’m 19 weeks and we are due early June.

While I am overjoyed, I’d be lying if I said this pregnancy hasn’t been laden with anxiety, especially early on. It has been a bit of a journey for us since deciding to try to start a family two years ago. As you may know, we suffered a devastating miscarriage at 13 weeks early last year, shortly after announcing our news. That pregnancy followed an early-term loss (blighted ovum), which followed nearly a year of trying to conceive. It’s been a rollercoaster, to say the least, but we feel blessed to be pregnant again and have not lost hope that we will have a family of our own.

My first trimester was filled with all the pregnancy symptoms. I wasn’t sick and vomiting every day (thank goodness) but weeks 5-9 were pretty awful. Nauseous yet starving, food aversions, digestion issues, discomfort in my pelvis including two days of extreme tailbone pain (crazy!), a week of utter exhaustion, peeing ALL the time, and some other fun ones I’ll spare you from reading.… Read more