Abby’s Saturday // Two Hundred And Twenty

Highlight of the Week

Today was my cousin Emilie’s baby shower!! Braelynn was so excited all week to go to “Emilie’s party” (although, I’m pretty sure she was thinking it was a wedding, because she asked me when the dancing part was going to start). We had so much fun – it was such a wonderful shower! Emilie & Zeb are literally set as far as welcoming their new little nugget into the world!! I even had to scope out the diaper bag that she got because let’s just say: with two little munchkins, this Mama is going to need a bigger bag (and the one she got looks AMAZING – update: I just bought it)!! Braelynn sat up front with “the girls” (our cousins Abby & Bekah) most of the time Emilie was opening her gifts, and every time she would open something that we had – she’d come running back to me & say: “Mom! Look! We have one of those too!!” It was so much fun!

Yes, This Happened

• I am now 30 (!!) weeks pregnant & baby boy is approximately the size of a head of cabbage (although I highly doubt he’s the size of the head of cabbage my Mom & I bought this past week at Schramm’s! It was literally bigger than a basketball!)
• Derrick has hit 1,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel!! It’s a huge milestone that he’s been chipping away at (for what feels like) forever. I’m so proud of him & all of his hard work in building his channel. It’s so crazy to think that just a few years ago, he was pouring all of his roller coaster knowledge into me (his one & only willing listener) and now he can talk & share about his great passion to his heart’s content through social media. It’s so good. (If you haven’t followed his channel yet, go give him some encouragement! You can get to his XScreamThrills Channel here!)
• We went thrifting this past week (my Mom, Braelynn, & I) and even though Braelynn owns a ton of dress-up princess dresses & costumes, we browsed through the display of Halloween costumes anyway. Braelynn specifically pulled out this massive sumo-wrestler costume (it looked like you blew air into it, like a balloon, to puff it up) and stated: “Look Mom! This one is just your size!”
• Braelynn has been obsessed with “Elsa music” forever – like over a year. It’s the only music she ever specifically requests, the first music we ever heard her sing along to, the music she asks for every single time we get in the car. You would think that eventually Mom & Dad would get tired of Elsa music, but it’s really not so bad – mostly because there truly aren’t that many songs with words! Over half of the CD is soundtrack music. However, this week, we discovered that there are several Daniel Tiger “CDs” on Spotify. I stuck them all in a playlist for Braelynn & we listened to them over, and over, and over, and over again, and again, and again, and again. I can officially say: Mom is done with the Daniel Tiger music! Not that it’s bad – it’s super cute & she loves it & bounces around singing along – but there’s just something about it. It’s overly little-kid-ish (I mean, duh, it’s Daniel Tiger). So, let’s just say, Mom has been sneakily turning back on the Elsa music more & more.

Feeling Blessed

This past Wednesday, I had my regular midwife appointment. If you’ve been following along with my pregnancy updates over the last few weeks, you’ll know that the last month has been a bit rough – with failing my glucose screening, having to take the 3-hour glucose test (passing that), and then changing up the way I eat, it’s been a crazy last few weeks. Since all of that had happened, I was really curious to see what my midwife was going to say at this appointment. Turns out – I had the best appointment I have ever had. I actually lost weight (which, you’re not supposed to do while pregnant, but I promise: it’s not like I was trying to), my blood pressure was at an all-time low (which again, is not supposed to happen in your 3rd trimester – they had warned me that I could expect my blood pressure to go up in my 3rd trimester), and overall, she was happier with me than ever. I cried walking out of the office. I could hardly believe it. It’s been such a roller coaster ride the last few weeks – to actually change up my diet & see good measured results – I was just overwhelmed. Needless to say, I am so excited to continue eating the way I have been (a low-glycemic diet) and am more excited than ever to welcome this little guy into our family!

Further! It’s officially October! Which means it’s my last month to work! I have 4 weddings this month, a few portrait & engagement shoots already scheduled, and then I’m done. I’m so excited to take the month of November “off” – to catch up from everything I’m doing in October, to work ahead so that I don’t have to worry about getting back to work right away after the little man arrives, to prep for Christmas, and most importantly: get ready for the little man to make his grand entrance & rock our world!! This month is just going to fly by & I’m so excited!