Whew...it is so hard to believe that somehow our family of 3 is about to become 4! Marlon and I are so very excited and blessed to have a baby girl joining us in November of this year! Rio is blessed and excited too, only he's pretty unaware of what's going on at the moment...
For some of you, this announcement may come as a surprise, especially if you follow me on social media (shouldn't I have a baby bump by now?). Well, I'm finally ready to break down everything from start to...well, not finish...since the end of this story will involve holding a little baby in my arms and we aren't quite there yet. But I did want to have an [[HONEST]] chat about what's been going on behind the scenes over here since I found out I was expecting.
- How We Found Out -
First of all, might as well get this out of the way now - yes, this baby was a surprise for us too. All of that to say, Marlon and I have always wanted another child so it's what I like to call an unexpected blessing ;-). Even though I'm in a good place now, I'd be lying if I told you I didn't immediately go into panic mode when I found out I was pregnant--mostly because I am a PLANNER through and through. If you spring something on me that I haven't had time to mentally obsess and coordinate in my brain for an extended period of time, I'm going to spiral - which is basically what went down.
For of my planning and prepping, you'd think I would also pay attention to when my period is over a week late. But apparently some things just don't prioritize in my brain the way I'd like them too. I woke up the morning of March 25th feeling absolutely AWFUL. I'd had a bad case of heartburn the night before and didn't sleep well and on top of that I felt run-down, nauseous and lethargic. I remember Marlon going to work, while I laid on the couch and stared at Rio eating breakfast in his highchair thinking - I don't even know how I'm going to get through this day. Somewhere during this time, my fuzzy brain started wondering when exactly I was due for my period. Should be around now, right? Maybe this nausea just was over exaggerated cramps? I pulled up the calendar on my phone and after a few moments of calculating I suddenly sat up straight. I was over a week late...which has really only happened once before, if you catch my drift.
By some miracle, in cleaning out my closet a few days before, I'd come across an unused pregnancy test from just before I had Rio and kept it for some reason - tossing it into a box in my closet. I ran upstairs, tore apart the box and peed on that stick like
my life depended on it. Even though I had my doubts about the validity of that test (it wasn't expired yet, but who knows what kind of temperatures and climates it had been exposed to in the past 2 years...) but even before I set it down to start timing I was pretty sure I could see two lines appearing instead of one.
Sure enough, 3 minutes later and clear as day: PREGNANT. This was about the time I called Marlon in a frenzy. My wonderful husband (who is, unlike me, a free spirit who doesn't require extensive planning in order to function like a human being) was thrilled. He also told me that everything I was stressing about (health insurance/money/being a mom of 2/my job/living space) were all things we could figure out. And....bless him. He was right.
About a week after, we broke the news to my mom who lives with us. Well, I should say we accidently broke the news to her which is the only reason I don't have the moment recorded, LOL. She, like my husband, was beyond excited to have another grandbaby on the way. We did tell my husband's parents and more friends and family along the way (previously with Rio, we kept things pretty quiet until I was about 11 weeks along) but I wasn't ready to share the news on social media just yet.
- "If Kylie Jenner was able to hide her pregnancy for 9 months, a nobody like me can do it for 4 months" -
Yes, this is an actual quote of mine I stated to friends and family multiple times in those early months. Even though it may seem ridiculous to anyone who isn't making their primary income from Instagram, for me I knew that my pregnancy meant a potential loss in new and ongoing partnerships. Even though this might sound shallow or unrealistic, it's just a basic fact. Many companies do not have a maternity line and on top of that, many of them have a young demographic which means most of their customers probably aren't buying what the pregnant lady is wearing. In the past year, I've made a heavy push towards doing more modeling/try-on posts and thanks to that change in content, I've seen an uptick in brand partnerships. For this reason, I wanted to hold off a long as I could before making what would inevitably be a switchover to #BumpStyle. So, yes, the photos you see on my Instagram in the past few weeks were probably edited in some way to make my bump less obvious, though I did have to do a few bikini/crop top videos which were difficult, to say the least. If you watch back you may be able to spot baby trying to steal the show....More proof than ever that what you see on social media isn't always what it looks like in real life. Anyway, long story short, I'm relieved that my bump can finally make its debut and I'm also blessed that many of the brands I work with have continued to be incredibly accommodating though this time.
- Finding Out the Gender & Pregnancy Comparisons -
With Rio (baby #1) we didn't receive his gender results until the 20 week ultrasound, which is general for most pregnancies. This time however, we opted for a Panorama prenatal DNA screening, which not only offers genetic information about the baby but also (bonus!) allows you to get an early gender result.
After the ultrasound and blood tests were done, I was told it would take 7-10 days to get the results back and it took exactly a week! In another sweet moment (which I failed to record....give me a break, I'm really new at this vlogging thing and moments like these are sometimes best experienced without an audience) Marlon and I pulled up the results together and after a bit of confusion about which PDF to open (🤣) we saw that the baby is a GIRL!! I had felt like it was a girl from the beginning, but kept doubting my intuition and to say that I CANNOT contain my excitement is an understatement. I hope you guys are ready for all the cute little girly outfits because I've already started buying them.... *RIP my wallet*
One of the reasons I thought this baby was a girl, was because of how completely different this pregnancy was from my first. With Rio I definitely had some morning sickness and feelings of exhaustion but that cleared up pretty early on and also came with some (werid??) but great perks like clearer skin and the hair on my legs not growing back until months after I gave birth. This baby is....different. No matter what I do, or what face washes I try, my skin is an absolute mess. New breakouts every day and the hair on my legs doesn't seem to be going anywhere this time. On top of that, the nausea has been unbearable. I don't actually throw up (thankfully) but just feel like I have to all the time which isn't much better, since there's no relief. On top of that, running around after a toddler and changing dirty diapers while feeling the absolute worst is a wholeeeee different vibe, let me tell you. Now that I'm out of the first trimester, I do feel like things are improving slightly, though I still have my moments (or entire days) where I just want to curl in a ball and sleep. Hopefully things will keep easing up as time goes on!
Well, I guess that covers most of the big stuff for now! I will be doing my best to blog my experience more often and if you have questions or things you'd like me to cover (also open to baby name suggestions...), leave a comment below or shoot me an email at luxelatte@gmail.com :)
Can't wait to share the rest of this journey with you!
xoxo
Amber
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