23 Weeks Pregnant

I'm roughly 26 weeks pregnant and just posting about my 23 week pregnant chalkboard.  On top of things much? I've learned that with baby #3 things run more slowly.  Literally ... I walk more slowly, I sit down more slowly, you get it.  One thing that isn't slow though?  My belly growth!  I'm HUGE.  I know people always say that, but at 23 weeks, I'm the same size as when I was 32 weeks pregnant with my first and 29 with my second!  YIKES!  I think we've got a big boy in there! :)

With my other daughters, I did weekly belly pictures and have really enjoyed looking back on them.  Now that my oldest is four, she loves looking through them and seeing how Mommy's belly got so big!  I knew that taking a weekly picture this time would be difficult since hubby is working all the time and doesn't get home until way past bedtime, so I wanted something special, unique, and still manageable!

Hubby and I built a big chalkboard for baby boy's nursery that is well secured above the crib.  I plan on writing his monthly milestones there when he's born, but why not use it in the mean time?

So there I am at 23 weeks!  YIKES!  I can't imagine how much more I'll grow! :)  But as he's kicking right now and going crazy as I type, I know it's all worth it.

To make the chalkboard, we measured the size that we wanted the chalkboard (I can't remember the exact dimensions but I think it's about 2 feet by 3 feet).  Hubby had a big piece of wood in the garage and I sanded it and painted with 2 coats of chalkboard paint.  Then I primed it (meaning you run the chalk over the entire area and then wipe off).  We bought some wood siding at Home Depot (cost was $10) and stained it with some stain we had around the house.  So the entire project cost us $10 and will make for tons of fun!

One afternoon while the girls read books in the teepee we have in baby brother's room, I started designing the chalkboard.  I don't know if I'll keep a similar style for the next or not, but in the mean time, this was fun!

I use plain anti-dust Crayola chalk and had a wet rag for the many mistakes I made.  I didn't sketch this out somewhere, this is a fun rememberance and wasn't meant to stress me out!

I'll probably do another shot in a couple weeks so I can chronicle the growth and will post those here too. :)  In the mean time, I'll keep waddling around and have people telling me "wow you're about to pop!" to then seem really embarrassed when I say "nope, still have 3.5 months left."
 

the best part of discovering the gender!

My title to this post is only kinda a joke ...  confession time, my name is Cristina and I love decorating nurseries. 

A couple weeks ago we discovered the gender of our third baby.  And after having two incredible and brave girls, we're adding a baby boy to the family!  We are so excited!

Immediately after the ultrasound I went to go buy some baby boy clothes because we have NONE! Girls, we are so covered.  Boys?  I guess the kiddo will be naked. haha!  We quickly discovered there isn't much of inspiring or exciting baby boy clothes, but had some luck at Carters.

Then once my hubby was finally home (he unfortunately can't make it to my doctors appointments due to work! boo!), the nursery planning began!  Hubby and I have liked a Katie Daisy print (she's an INCREDIBLE painter and I have one of her pieces in my girls room) for ages.  We've always said that if we had a baby boy, this print would somehow be in the nursery.  Within a few weeks of our "boy" ultrasound, I ordered this print and it should be on its way soon!

We're doing an under the stars theme so we're thinking a tent, some adventure items, stars, etc.  It's a pretty open-ended theme which we like, and the colors involve some primary colors along with the yellow, navy, and green that my eyes kept going to when I looked up nurseries on pinterest.

We haven't done much other than order this print that's visible to the naked eye, but we've actually spent a lot of time organizing the future baby boy nursery.  Once we totally clear the room out, we'll rearrange the baby furniture that we already have from baby #2 (so it has a unique look) and get started!

So excited! :)

forgive the snoring lady

In a business, keeping up with social media is really important.  And, I suck at it.  BIG time!

Typically I'm just so busy fulfilling orers and my top priority is customer service and shipping my orders out quickly so that fills my time.

But lately, that hasn't been the culprit.  If I'm being totally honest, I've been napping a lot.  What a life right?  Oh, and I went to Puerto Rico with my hunky man and gorgeous kids.

Again, not being totally honest.

Ya see, we've got another human joining the family! :) And we couldn't be happier.

It was actually quite a scary journey as we were told we were going to lose the baby and mommy intuition told me to wait it out.  And what a fighter we have!  Because the baby slowly but surely showed up on ultrasound and is now measuring perfectly on time with a great heartbeat!

So I feel a little bad I've been neglecting parts of my job and that I haven't been designing new things (time to design new things typically goes to time that I now feel sick).  With my previous 2 pregnancies the toilet and I were VERY acquanited (or garbage cans, or just a bag that I could grab fast enough) ... fortunately, the morning sickness is MUCH better with this baby!  Don't know why, but I'll take it!  I still have rough times everyday, but it was literally debilitating with the other two.  Here I was able to actually fly to a gorgeous vacation and two pills helped any queasiness.

Since I haven't been the best blogger / social media business owner, I figured a sale would make make up for it, even if just a little!

The etsy shop recently made it's 10,000th sale.  It was what I originally DREAMED of when my shop started taking off.  I never thought I'd be that lucky.  And I feel SO blessed guys.  SO blessed for my job, for the fact that people come back for seconds and thirds.  I couldn't put in to words how much I appreciate it.

Since new designs are probably going to be a little slower the next few months, enjoy what's there and shop around with a sale!  It's going on until Monday night and discount will automatically be placed at noon today (05.23).

www.laceyfields.etsy.com  <<----- click there and do some shoppin'!

Have an incredible weekend!