I didn’t take my camera along for this trip, so bear with me and my Instagram and phone pics!

We landed in Key West on a Friday afternoon. Aside from a crazy-rough landing (the runway there is SHORT so you come in fast/hard!), this was the easiest airport experience of my life. Both coming and going were less than fifteen-minute adventures…and you can’t beat hanging at the only airport beach bar in the country!

The entire island of Key West is around 2 x 4 miles, so in a hot minute, we were at our hotel, Ocean Key Resort & Spa. We were between this and the Westin, and while I can’t speak for staying there, we were very happy with this choice. The staff was very efficient and friendly (they even ran out to track us down some super glue when an earring emergency happened right before maternity pictures!), the food was delicious, and everything from the room to the gym to the pool was very comfortable (and well-decorated — it was fun to take a little island inspiration back to the midwest!).

We had to laugh at the shower set-up (apparently if you really want to put on a show for someone in the bedroom as you get clean, you sure can!). I was a little obsessed with the claw foot double sink in here…hmm…ideas for the house….

And even if it was overcast when we first checked in, you couldn’t beat the blue water view from our balcony.

We got right down to business, heading to nearby Sunset Pier for a mocktail/cocktail overlooking the water, (they make a pretty delicious burger, too!).

And we wasted no time making our way to the hotel pool…where we ended up camping out for much of each day we were here. I was surprised at how little BEACH there is on this island, but that was okay — poolside drink service (with nearby restrooms) is much more my speed anyway. 😉

Page isn’t much of a sweets guy, and I’m not all that big on ice cream, but we made REPEAT trips to Duetto Pizza & Gelato while we were here. There are tons of gelato spots around the island but this one stood head and shoulders above all the others recommended on Yelp. The slices were great…but the gelato was ah.maz.ing. Peanut butter for him and chocolate hazelnut for me…and we didn’t dare switch it up and try anything else. Don’t fix it if it’s not broken…and already epic.

We were actively trying to NOT over-schedule ourselves, so aside from a massage appointment and a couple dinner reservations, our days were open for exploring and sun-soaking. Just walking to the local CVS for a couple items was an adventure…when the streets are lined with exhibits like this:

There is some great boutique shopping along Duval Street…mixed in with just as many tourist junk stores (it’s ridiculous what people will buy!). They weren’t exactly serving up many maternity options, but Page found some cool stuff at the mens and womens’ boutique, Evolution, and I couldn’t resist some purchases at Naples Soap Company — you could smell the amazing scents from outside the store. I can’t wait to have a tub in the new house — I loaded up on their famous bath bombs in anticipation!

Our favorite dinner was actually at our hotel’s Hot Tin Roof. We had a gorgeous sunset view on the deck, and we would have licked the plate the Lobster Mac ‘n’ Cheese arrived on, if appropriate.

You’ll have to forgive all the food focus but keep in mind this preggo spent her first trimester not eating and still thinks she should be making up for it. 😉 We had an amazing breakfast at La Creperie — I’m a crepe FANATIC, but even if you aren’t interested in that part of the menu, Page had an omelette that was to die for. I should mention at this point, we didn’t bother to rent a car, as all these shops and restaurants are easily within a mile’s walking distance. (Bonus…you can burn off a little of everything you indulge in!)

Other highlights of the trip were taking out a boat on the perfect blue water one morning…

…and taking a ferry to a nearby island for dinner at the Westin’s Latitudes restaurant for our final dinner, on our actual anniversary. The experience was fun and different — you don’t make a reservation for a specific time, they tell you when to be at the dock and you ride out with other people with the same reservation slot. (How appropriate — we left from Slip 29!)

The restaurant was something out of a Pottery-Barn-goes-Island scene, and I fought the urge to ask every member of the wait staff about the paint colors they used. Definitely brought back some house inspiration from there as well!

Overall, we had a wonderfully relaxing time, and while I feel like we covered a good bit of it all, there were a couple things we didn’t do that I’d be interested to, another time. We didn’t visit the SouthernMost Point, as we heard the lines to get a photo are always very long, and we didn’t hit up any of the numerous museums (there are a surprising number of them, for such a small town!).

Oh, and I’d come back not pregnant and able to indulge in the wine tastings and beach cocktails. 🙂

We are home from Key West and while I wished I had a few days to undo all of my indulging before hitting the doctor’s office, so such luck ha — and I was headed to my monthly appointment:

How far along: 26 weeks and counting! (Baby’s the size of a head of lettuce)

Gender: BOY

Weight gain:   +9lbs…right on track (phew!) and trying to keep things steady between workouts and eating right (for the MOST part…vacation week NOT included!)

Maternity clothes: Almost everything now is maternity – or at least the basics, layered with some non-maternity pieces.

Stretch marks: No – lotioning up daily!

Belly button in or out: in, but definitely becoming more shallow…

Sleep: sleeping pretty well, but wake up at least once a night because of pain in my hips/tailbone area and have to readjust to find a position that’s comfortable

Best moment:  Certainly, our trip to Key West, and also welcoming our friends’ baby boy and both Page and me loving on him and not quite believing that in three short months, we’ll have our own! Another great moment was officially deciding on his name! It wasn’t the plan to do any more than narrow it down to a list of 2 or 3 and see what best fit him when he arrived…but when I wanted to order something personalized a couple weeks ago, Page offered that “I think we know the name don’t we?” and I quickly agreed. The same name has been floating to the top for a while now…and it’s fun to make it official and refer to him by it when we chat about him.

Worst moment: the rainy days that WOULD.NOT.STOP. through early September. We’d get one clear day, but not enough in a row to finally pour the garage floors and move on to framing, pushing back our timeline even further.

Miss anything: always red wine – especially at the news of adding months to our construction loan…a glass would really take the edge off ha! I’ve indulged in sips here and there at this point…but I’d love to just bust into a bottle with no reservations!

Movement: LOTS! I’m grateful for the kicks, of course, but Baby seems to think it’s funny to go full-on David Beckham at about 4am lately! Starting in another week, I use an app to officially begin counting them.

Cravings: Cereal, apple juice, bananas, and about once a week I MUST have a sprinkled donut — it’s non-negotiable 🙂

Queasy or sick: some heartburn but not awful, otherwise great!

Looking forward to: upcoming showers — my sister-in-law is hosting a family get-together the end of October, and two of my girlfriends are hosting one here in Des Moines in early November for our friends…can’t wait to celebrate this little guy with loved ones!

We were blessed to take a very relaxing four nights in the Florida Keys and get away from it all — day jobs, second jobs, homebuilding, and apartment living. We love to be busy, and we truly enjoy working, but once we nearly forced ourselves to schedule a little time away, we realized just how much we needed it. Lots of sun (and humidity!), lots of laughs, lots of food (I may have eaten my weight in gelato!), and lots of quiet, smiley moments, as we focused on what’s to come as we start the third trimester in the coming days. 

On the eve of our seventh wedding anniversary, we shot some maternity pictures. Little One stole the show of course and I’m beyond thrilled we have these rare, slowed-down, moments captured in photographs, as a way to remember this special time in our lives that is fleeting for sure. (Little One officially has his name by the way…it’s incorporated into a picture we took at this session that I’m dying to share later after he’s made his arrival.)

Big thank you hugs to the awesome Harmons duo for a photography session around the island that felt more like a double date with friends we’d known for years. I will treasure these photos for years to come.

I’m looking forward to writing another post more specifically about the trip and the sights we saw and places we ate and stayed that we’d definitely recommend. But for tonight, I’m just reliving this perfect past Sunday night with my main guy, and my little guy on the way.

Thank you for all of the kind comments and emails about our news. I promise this won’t turn into an all-out baby blog going forward (and after this one, I’m done posting pics of sticks I’ve peed on!), but you’ll have to forgive the next few posts, including this one, as they’re a product of this secret we’ve been keeping the past several weeks, but couldn’t talk about!

We had a scare early on (more on that below), which prompted us to wait a while to tell even our immediate family. Because of this, there has been no one but Page to listen to my little outbursts as I’m learning my new body and lifestyle during these early months, and there have been some scary and joyful moments we had to keep to ourselves early on, neither of which I want to forget. Below are some of the little stories that I couldn’t yet share in the early weeks, but want to blog and remember…

1. The first person I told was my dental hygienist. Not that she and my dentist aren’t great people, but it was hardly the romanticized version of “sharing your news with your inner circle, first”. What can you do, I had to let them know so I wasn’t given x-rays and fluoride treatments…it was still a fun moment full of hugs. 🙂

2. Fake drinking is tricky business. Within days of learning our news, I had to master this art for a variety of events from my sister-in-law’s graduation to a work cocktail hour and dinner. It can be done — but you either commit to getting to an event dorky-early (so you can befriend the bartender and swear him to secrecy) or you team-drink with your hubby, taking fake sips off a drink that matches his, and swapping when no one is looking so they both empty over time. I think Page was okay to take one for the team on this. 🙂 I also took tacky to a whole new level on more than one occasion, carrying my drink to the bathroom with me, so I could pour it down the drain. Eventually, I got more lazy about covering it up and figured eh, soon enough people will find out anyway!

3. Decaf coffee…is bullshit. Thankfully, when I got to my nine-week appointment, my doctor assured me that I had permission to drink a cup a day of the real deal. I may or may not have resisted kissing her, and then hit up the Starbys drive-through on my way home. (On a related note…non-alcoholic wine is a total letdown as well!)

4. I didn’t cry when we found out. I always kind of thought I’d cry when the day came that a test came back positive. But we were so shocked, more than anything. And kind of just didn’t believe the test was right. We knew that pregnancy was a small possibility, but SO small that I had actually taken the test more to “rule out” that pregnancy was what was going on with me during a stomach bug. We hadn’t actually entered the phase of really “trying” yet and I think because of this, we weren’t yet in the mindset of longing and wanting enough to have tears of joy and relief. (Obviously, we are thrilled and grateful for the news, but I share that story for anyone else who might feel bad that they aren’t sobbing over their EPT stick!)

5. I had to look my mom in the eye the day after we found out. And say nothing. It was WAY too early to share the news even with family, and we weren’t even out of the woods of it being only a chemical pregnancy. I was still processing the news myself, let alone ready to process how to tell anyone else. But as events would have it, my parents came to Des Moines the week we moved, which happened to be the day after we found out with a home test. There’s something about moms… you just assume they know everything, instantly. In fact, when we were sitting at the half-packed house discussing what else was going to go/sell/head to storage, she asked about the grill on our deck. She said something like, “well, you know that’s not good for you now”, referencing some recent report about grilling and carcinogens in meat, but my brain shot straight to, “why? because I’m pregnant? because you KNOW I’m pregnant?!” I think I played it cool, but I felt like the truth was written all over my face.

6. The whole ultrasound experience was a whirl of information. We tried to make the necessary plans and lifestyle changes, but did little more than that between the time we found out, and our first appointment at nine and a half weeks to confirm there was indeed a beating heart in there. I experienced bleeding and cramping just shy of week six and was told by the doctor’s office that it was a bit too early to verify either way via ultrasound.We know so many who experienced the common, “it went away” scenario, and we approached the next weeks until our first appointment with a lot of caution. It didn’t become real for me when saw two pink lines on a stick. It became real when we finally got to see this wiggly little nugget squirming around on the ultrasound, and the flickering of its heartbeat.

It was a good moment I’ll never forget and we laughed joyously at both being able to SEE some real proof of this tiny person, and at the miracle of it all. As soon as the ultrasound screen roared to life and we saw what was clearly a moving, lively fetus (yay!), we immediately spotted what appeared to be a second (empty) sack on the ultrasound. Between that and the cramping/bleeding I experienced three weeks prior, we were told that while there’s no way to know for certain, it’s quite possible the pregnancy began as twins. From learning our baby was in great shape, to learning we likely lost a second, this was a lot of information to get in a single minute – I think I’m still processing this one – but it was all in all a wonderful memory of relief and happiness.

Baby S Heartbeat

7. Hearing the heartbeat = top ten coolest moments ever. Thanks to a friend at work who loaned us her at-home doppler, we were able to find the heartbeat in the eleventh week, at home, knowing that Page would be out of town for the next regular appointment in which we’d have otherwise heard it for the first time. We were prepared for it to not work well (the home ones are sometimes unreliable) but it came through, loud and clear, in the 170s, and we raced to record it on our phone. (You can download the sound byte by clicking the audio link above!)

8. Ah, nausea, my constant companion. I felt GREAT through my first six weeks (fortunately, since we were moving and there was no time for pause!). Then, week 7 hit and for a couple days, I thought my life was over for the coming months. Fortunately I learned some coping mechanisms, but I was nauseous at some point every single day for about six weeks. I never actually got sick, or had any crazy cravings, it was more that NOTHING sounded good , and the scale has reflected that – the one ray of light in this situation. I was also WORN OUT by the end of the day and would collapse into bed super early – 9pm became the new 11.

9. Just call me Uncle Si. You know how crazy old Si on Duck Dynasty always has his “tea cup” in his hand? That has been me, but with a huge pink tumbler of ice cold sparkling water. All. the. time. It’s what has worked for me to keep my stomach as settled as possible. My other go-to has been popsicles. God bless Costco on both counts.

10. Telling work was nerve-wracking. This was the toughest place to keep quiet, because I spend so much of my time in our small office. For weeks, I felt like I was wearing a sign that said, “I’m pregnant!” between frequent trips to the bathroom, suddenly rejecting coffee (and all food for that matter), and downing sparkling water and saltines like it was my new career path. I never worried they wouldn’t be supportive or excited, but delivering news to coworkers comes with this major sense of responsibility. It’s hard to JUST focus on the good news, without weighing it down with worries about maternity leave, hiring a temp, redistributing workloads, and not being able to travel in the later months. The time will come for those discussions (sooner than later, I’m sure!), but in the meantime, work has felt like a load off my shoulders to not be secret-keeping on top of everything else to do between 8 and 5 each day.

11. Telling our families was a lot of fun. Being married for nearly seven years, we have chosen to keep it “just us” until now, and shared that decision openly with our families. We had recently alluded to some changing priorities, but the news still brought some sincere surprise, which made it fun. It worked out well that just as we approached the end of the first trimester, we would see both sets of parents in person — mine when it just so happened that my brother and sister-in-law were visiting from Korea (the first time in a year and a half!), and Page’s parents, when he went through his hometown on the way to his guys’ trip for the year.

12. You DO start to feel better. There were weeks I thought I might never, but like clockwork at twelve weeks, I had a full day without any of the “icks”. Then the next day, I had the tiniest bit, and by the third, I was back to feeling fine. It just suddenly dissolves, food smells, tastes, (and agrees) right again, and my evenings no longer revolve around crashing in bed at 7pm to watch Orange Is The New Black as a distraction from feeling awful. Hellllloooo, second trimester. I am more than ready for you!

13. I’m excited for Page. We were never that couple that went on and on about family plans, in part because we’ve been so happy with “just us” until now, and in part I think we didn’t want to jinx anything. But now that we’re here, I almost feel like we’re getting to know this new dimension of each other and at the same time, it all feels completely natural. While he’s been very guarded during the first trimester until all checked out okay, he’s also been visibly excited, which has been fun to watch.

If you know Page, he doesn’t do ANYTHING halfway, and he hates to be out of the loop. So I ordered a book just for him, after scouring reviews (this one won major points from dad reviewers for being one that doesn’t “talk down” to fathers-to-be — seriously, what’s that about?!). I knew that, at the risk of driving me crazy with all his new “expertise”, he’d devour it willingly. The above image warms my heart — he reads it unsolicited, folds down pages, and keeps it next to the bed. It’s a small indicator of just how amazing a parent he will be to this new person on the way.

Anyone else have first trimester truths to share? I know I’m not alone! And, to play along with those who blog their pregnancy stats, here’s my current rundown: