An update that’s been 6 months in the making with another 3 months counting down towards fruition… Yes, you read right. Charles and I are expecting a little baby bun (BB) sometime in October. Gender to be revealed at the time of birth. :)
I’ve gone back and forth, overthinking when the right time was to share the news; hesitant to jinx what has been an unexpectedly fragile 1st and 2nd trimester experience so far (another story for a later time). Charles and I tend to hold things close in times of uncertainty… But if there’s anything I’ve learned after we finally felt confident enough to tell our family and friends that we were pregnant around 18 weeks = It’s that there is real strength in opening ourselves up to the communal support of our tribe. Our BB is already so anticipated, loved and covered in prayer and blessings.
That said, our time away in Maine this past week provided just the right moment of comfort and inspiration to set up the camera and fully embrace this chapter in life. Charles took the photos of me solo and then, since I forgot to pack my tripod, we ended up using a dinner tray to position the camera for our seIf-portraits together.
If you’ve been following this space for a while, you know I’m a sucker for sunsets and sunrises and so I was really happy we were able to capture my new and ever changing sunset silhouette on my favorite Maine pond, in my favorite place to relax and restore, with my most favorite person and partner in life.
This is me at 27 weeks prego… The last week of my 2nd trimester. According to my What to Expect app, Baby Bun is the size of a cabbage and, according to Charles, I’ve never looked more sexier in my “growing plumpness” lol.
BB is a real woody woodpecker, with the tendency to kick or punch on the bladder or ribs just when when I’m about to doze off (hello using the bathroom an average 2-3 times a night these days) and Charles has taken to speaking to baby bump daily before bed with the intro “Hey, this your Daddy” followed by a full recap of each day’s events *melts my heart every time*.
^^ Very rare for me to use the flash on my camera but it ended up working out perfectly in lighting our faces for these next set of photos. Also, I think it’s funny how, from the front, I don’t look so pregnant but then when I turn to the side… It’s like Bam! Hey Bump.
As for Mama Me… once the initial nausea phase passed, I’ve not had much issue physically so far… Just been drinking my gallon of water a day, taking prenatal vitamins, eating 3 square meals, snacking on mad fruit, and rotating between prenatal barre and boxing workouts or 2 mile walks about 4-5 times a week. I went through a hardcore peanut butter and jelly sandwich craving phase early on but, lately, I’ve just been wanting to eat anything that falls into the category of ‘fresh’, i.e. smoothies, acai bowls, salads… Oh and Meat. Every once in a while, your girl has a mean craving for steak or spam masubi (my mouth is now watering just thinking about it lol). Prior to prego life, I was a hybrid veggie/pescatarian… But now, I can’t stand the taste of shrimp and am sometimes turned off by salmon. Luckily, I’m still on good seafood taste terms with fried whiting and lobstah.
Tomorrow marks the beginning of my 3rd trimester and, looking forward, we’ve got two weddings (one that’s actually taking place on our due date – the bride and groom have confirmed there are three docs/nurses on attendee list in case anything pops off… er, out?) and two baby showers in the forecast. Outside of that, I plan to spend my time working virtually, prepping our home for baby’s arrival and for my Mommy Ma to move in later this year (insert hardcore ‘nest mode’ here), going on nature walks and floating around like a manatee at our community pool.
As someone who identifies as multi-passionate, I expect ‘parenthood’ to be another hat of highly prioritized passion added to the life juggle that will fuel the rotation of content with this online journal. It’s honestly been a while since I’ve felt true inspiration to catalog life again and anticipate some prego/baby centered posts coming your way as we countdown to BB’s birth day.
Back to enjoying the rest of our babymoon in Maine.
Until next post.
xo, Setarra
P.S. For anyone who maybe wondering, I searched around the web for a one piece maternity swimsuit that wasn’t so ‘matronly lookin’ and ended up finding the perfect one via Cache Coeur. I got a size large and, at 27 weeks, the belly area fabric feels like it still has alot of stretch to grow with me throughout the rest of pool season this summer. It is a bit of an investment price wise but one that, so far, feels worthwhile considering it’s the only one I own and I’ve been wearing it to the pool a couple days a week, every week since it arrived in May and no color fade so far.
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