Baby A is a...

Well, friends, we found out the gender of our little one!  Before we get into that, I want to say a huge "Thank You" to Meloney, Chris, and Emily for putting together such an incredible gender reveal party, with tons of touches of my favorite show: How I Met Your Mother.

I mean, look at some of these details!
This board was made by our Aunt Tammi, including some old wives' tales to help people guess the gender, which they did using their thumbprint on this super cute umbrella page.  Most guessed baby is going to be a boy.
















Brian and I didn't have a preference either way.  I didn't have any sort of gut feeling - but I think part of me was hoping girl just because boys are terrifying.  Haha!

We did the reveal using a colored smoke bomb under my How I Met Your Mother umbrella.  Our brother-in-law lit the smoke bomb and out came...

PINK!

Brian and I are so very excited to welcome our little girl into the world in April 2019!
Brenli Lynn Arruda, we cannot wait to meet you!

-jennilea

The Hardest Part of MY Pregnancy

Can I be real for a moment?  Well...this is my blog so I'm going to be.  Please bear with the complaining for a moment.  I promise it gets better toward the end.

The hardest part of my pregnancy thus far has been other people!  They are often so quick to jump to the most negative parts of a pregnancy and about having kids.  I hear more negatives from the world than I do positives.  It's enough to make anyone terrified.

The clichés drive me the most crazy...
I say jokingly that I was up peeing all night. They say "You think you aren't sleeping now, just wait until she is here."
I say I'm in an awkward clothing stage.  They say, "One day you'll wake up and won't be able to see your feet and your ring won't fit!"
Brian and I talk about traveling.  They say, "Better get all of that out of the way.  You won't be doing much of that for at least 18 years."
I'm working out.  They say, "Careful! Baby on board!"
I'm living life and...[insert any other another annoying cliché]"

Brian and I prayed for this.  I've read more books on conception and pregnancy than I can count.  We prepared for this as much as possible. I am a planner and I feel like this is one of the most important things we have ever planned for in our lives!

I was prepared for a lot of unsolicited advice, but what I wasn't prepared for was the amount of negativity from so many people - especially when I see this entire life stage as such an incredible blessing.

Do I think I know absolutely everything about pregnancy, babies, and birth - absolutely not.  Is it all going to be sunshine, rainbows, and positivity- Nope! But I am extremely aware of the typical things like lack of sleep and the fact that my body is changing.

I'm also so very aware of my own personal limits, like when it comes to lifting weights and running.  I've been doing insane workouts for years!  Do I plan on deadlifting 225 lbs during my pregnancy? Absolutely not! But it is so very healthy and important to me that I would stay active, which is why I'm lifting light weights and running just as much as I was before.  My doctor cleared my level of activity and is proud to see how well I've been doing, and I've been really proud of what I've been able to accomplish.

When it comes to traveling with kids, I'm a believer in the fact that you have the ability to do anything you set your mind to.  I am incredibly passionate about adventure and exploring the world.  Am I planning on taking little one out of the country tomorrow? Nope! But Brian and I want to instill a sense of adventure in our little one's life.  We want her to explore and experience other cultures and ways of living.  We want to show her places we've fallen in love with, and inspire her to dream and dare mighty things.  In that, we do plan on traveling with her, and traveling often!  In doing so, I am so very aware that it's not going to be easy, but nothing in parenting is easy.  We learn and we adjust, but we don't have to stop living out those things we are so passionate about.

Maybe you're not trying to be negative Nancy.  Maybe you're just trying to let me in on something you may have personally not been prepared for.  I see your heart in that, but maybe consider this before jumping to share the first negative thing you can think of:  The reason I need some positivity is that I'm already terrified, but for completely different reasons.

On Saturday, Brian and I FINALLY bought something for Brenli.  It's been over 5 months, yet I haven't purchased a single item for her.  I mean, girls should be fairly fun and easy to buy for, but every time I decide to take that step, fear grabs a hold of me, and I put back the cute dress I found because...what if something goes wrong?  What if something happens to her and I never get to put her in that dress?  These are the things I am scared for.  These are the things that keep me from feeling like I can breathe late at night when I worry the most.

My friend Christina shared some really good words of wisdom for me today, when I finally voiced those fears to her, "Honestly, I don't think it will go away.  I think part of being a mom is being afraid all the time.  You just have to not let the fear take away from the joy...baby deserves happiness, excitement, love, even if they're not going to be with you for long."

I can't explain in words how much I truly needed to hear that.

Most of the time, I'm excited - I mean REALLY excited about baby coming.  I'm excited for the fact that this is going to be hard and challenging because I know Brian and I are going to grow through it. I'm so excited and blessed to be able to go through these difficulties because there are others in this world who can't.

Rant over.

Ps.  Here is a picture of me at 23 weeks!  :)

-jennilea

Sharing Our Story

Well, it's just about time.  Tomorrow we will be 12 weeks which means we get to share our secret with all of you.  Let me tell you, it is about dang time!  When you get exciting news, all you want to do is share it with the world.  We were blessed enough to be able to tell our closest family and friends, and through them, we are telling all of you.  If you haven't already, head over to my Facebook page to see our pregnancy reveal.

So now that you've all enjoyed that, I wanted to share with you how I told Brian:
My sister is a photographer (http://jackiraney.com/ if you're interested), and I instantly knew I wanted to tell him in a way that would also capture his reaction. We told him she was working on a couples project, which she does from time to time.  On letter boards, she had us say what we loved most about each other.  His said "I love her heart and her passion" while mine said "You're going to be the best dad! 2019"  We stood back to back and then faced each other when she told us to.  At that point, we looked at each other's signs (well, I looked at his face while he read my sign).  He had this look of confusion, and then it clicked: He is going to be a dad!  When we were talking about it later, he told me he was confused because he thought I did it wrong.  Haha!

Here are photos from that moment.  We hope you enjoy sharing in our joy:

-jennilea

11 Weeks!

Here we are: 11 weeks!  Yesterday we got to see baby.  We were expecting to hear the heartbeat, but my doctor told us they err on the side of caution during the first trimester because doppler could potentially lead to miscarriage.  So we wait until our next appointment at the end of October to hear it.

Here is a picture of baby A, who is starting to actually LOOK like a baby:

Measuring exactly to where it should be to keep that due date of April 19th.

New things for week 11:

• I'm getting my energy back! 
• I haven't really had any morning sickness.  As long as I eat breakfast, I haven't gotten too nauseous.  
• I can smell all of the smells.
• Aversions:  Minty gum (so sad), fish, fried food, eggs (except in quiche and the spinach egg wraps from Starbucks for some reason), and garlic.
• Having gained a whopping pound and a half, I'm not showing much yet.  Here is a photo from week 1 to now. 

So far we are doing pretty well. :)

-jennilea

We're Telling Family & Weekly Updates!

Ah the joys of telling family!  Now that we're feeling better about everything, we've started to tell our family and very close friends, which has been really exciting!  We've given a good amount of thought on how to tell each of those people, and we've filmed their reactions - which you will all be seeing by the time these blogs are out.  We hope you enjoyed watching it just as much as we enjoyed walking it out.

In week 7, I finally starting to feel hungry again!  I'm trying my best to eat things that are going to be good an nourishing for baby and for myself rather than using the old "eating for two" excuse.  The only hard part is that I'm getting hungry a lot more often than I did before.

Aversions: Fish, garlic, and fried food.  No thank you!

In week 8, I was completely exhausted! All I wanted to do was sleep.  

Same aversions. I'm also having trouble getting water down which is a problem I've literally never had!

In week 9, I started off sleeping my days away if possible.  I experienced a small amount of morning sickness on day.  Toward the end of the week I started getting my energy back!  I love eating cold foods, especially fruit!  Aversions are still the same.

I am doing my best to stay as active as I can even if it's just a walk around my neighborhood.  I still enjoy lifting and aerial yoga as my favorite activities!

I'm almost to week 10 and we are about 1 week out from our next ultrasound.

It's been a wild and exciting few weeks. 

-jennilea

We Saw The Heartbeat

At our ultrasound appointment we got such great news!  Baby has a heartbeat!  We got to see it and she said the rate was perfect (note to self to ask about how many beats next time).  It so crazy how baby went from being a dot at 5 weeks to seeing a head and body a week and a half later!

Somehow this is moving fast yet so slow all that the same time.

Brian is absolutely incredible and so supportive.  The hours I spent in pain in the he spent awake with me either holding me, helping put pressure where it hurt, or by pouring warm water on my tummy to help the heat kick in faster.

When I am scared, he prays with me and comforts me, not showing even an ounce of fear.  His bravery and strength astounds me - especially later on when he tells me that on the inside he was freaking out all of those scary nights.  But then we get to see this - and it's a reward for all the pain.  My body is doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing to create this home for baby for the next several months.

We are still in disbelief that all of this is real - but it's happening, and we couldn't be more excited for our future, and our family.

Our next appointment is on September 27th, which feels really far away.

Can't wait to post this journey. :)

-jennilea