Our sweet baby James is coming for us, whether we are ready or not! We are officially in the 3rd trimester!! Pregnancy is such a whirlwind! Every week comes with a new set of emotions, excitement and disbelief! And somehow the whole process feels so slow yet so fast at the same time!! He’s not even in our arms yet, but our whole world has already been turned upside down in the best way!! 

I’m happy to say that the second trimester has still been smooth sailing! This pregnancy has been almost too easy that I feel like I’m just waiting for the other shoe to drop! But I still have a ways to go, so knock on wood! Things are really moving along now and getting more real! From my big ‘ol belly to putting finishing touches on the nursery, this is really happening!! 

Here’s a little bit of what’s happened in the 2nd trimester, how I’ve been feeling and more! 

• One of the biggest highlights of the 2nd trimester still has to be finding out that Baby Deyerle was a boy!! Knowing his gender and calling him by his name, James Allen, is when it really started to feel real! Honestly, since I had a symptom-free first trimester, I didn’t even actually feel pregnant until around 17/18 weeks! That was when we found out the gender and the tiniest little baby bump started to show! 
• Around that time was also when I starting to notice the pregnancy affecting me on wedding days. The first thing I noticed was that my usual wedding day snacks just weren’t cutting it anymore. I was ravenous just a few hours into the day. So getting a full lunch beforehand and bringing plenty of snacks became a necessity! And as the belly grows, I’m definitely starting to feel it more in my legs and feet at the end of the day. But the big belly also means that I get a lot of help from people offering to carry my things! Can’t complain about that!
• It wasn’t until the last couple weeks that I got first real negative pregnancy symptom- leg pain! All the extra weight has definitely been wreaking havoc on my legs, particularly my groin/hip flexor area! So being on my feet for long periods of time and sleeping have become much more difficult! I’ve been going to a chiropractor regularly since day one, so I think that is keeping the back pain at bay for now! 

• For everyone that has asked if the nursery is done, it pretty much is! I knew that I wanted to be able to take my time with it and not feel rushed at the end of the pregnancy to throw it together, so we are pretty much done now! All that we need now is all the actual baby gear, which we are waiting until after baby showers to buy. But it really is my favorite room in the house, not just because it makes me think of our sweet baby James, but also because I love the way it turned out! Walking by it just makes me smile! Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to do a full blog post about it once it’s done done.
• Speaking of baby showers, those of have been so fun too! I had my first one the other weekend with my dad’s side of the family. It’s so fun to get to spend a day celebrating our little one and to see how excited the rest of the family is for his arrival too!! And seeing all the boxes of actual baby items in the house has really made it start to feel real! There’s gonna be an actual baby living in this house! 
• My favorite thing about pregnancy so far has to be all the kicks! They have gotten so much stronger in the last few weeks and I love it so much!! Especially the big ones that take me by surprise! It feels like he’s trying to get my attention or something! And you can see them really well from the outside of the belly now which is so cool and creepy at the same time! Branden even got a good kick to the face once when we was resting his head on my belly!
• Another question we’ve been getting is how Branden is feeling being on the other side of the pregnancy journey. In case you didn’t know, my husband is an Ob/Gyn resident! So is he more paranoid because he knows too much? Or is he more relaxed because he knows not to worry about a lot of the wives tales. I’d say it’s been a mix of both. For the most part, he’s more relaxed and tells me not to worry about things. But there are a few things that he’s more particular about that a non-OB dad wouldn’t even think about. But having him and his expertise has been such a blessing. I’ve never felt any anxiety about the pregnancy, or even the delivery, because I know I have him to answer all my questions and make sure everything is going as it should! 

• Taking pants on and off has become quite the challenge these days. Branden’s favorite part of the day is watching me attempt to get changed for bed as I’m falling all over the place. Jerk! I’ve also become quite good at picking things up with my toes! If something falls on the floor and I can’t grab it with my feet, it’s not getting picked up!
• Another question I’ve been getting is if I’ve been having an cravings. Honestly, not really! At least nothing that I’ve noticed. I basically just want (and don’t want) all the things I did before pregnancy! 
• Something I can’t quite wrap my head around yet is that James is actually already here. In my mind, there’s just a ball of flesh and bones in my belly and it’s not until he’s delivered that he’ll actually become a baby! Nope! There’s a real fully formed baby in there! We got to see him in 3D yesterday which really convinced me of that! I can’t get over his sweet smushy face! Look at those cheeks! And those lips!! Don’t know where he got those from!!

Baby James has been doing a lot of growing over the last several weeks! 

And so have I! Belly growth from 17 weeks to 28 weeks!  
I still can’t believe that we are in the home stretch! I can’t wait until our family photos have one more member!! 

Check out this post to read about my first trimester!