Maternity Days

Pregnancy changes you. If you've been pregnant before then this fact certainly won't be news to your ears. I expected changes, I knew my body would change and that I might get morning sickness or even "pregnancy brain," but I really had no idea just how much I would change.

I feel like my brain was cut in half. Literally, I feel like I can only use half my brain now. Blonde moments seem to occur way to much lately, half the time I can't even remember my own name or how old I am and I can't seem to remember what I ate for breakfast most of the time. Sometimes I feel utterly useless. I was fully capable of handling the high stress job I had prior to getting pregnant but during pregnancy the job was just unmanageable for me. I was constantly having panic attacks or mental break downs or crying on my husbands shoulder. Granter my job and my boss were the cause of most of these problems, but pregnancy certainly seemed to make it harder. So, I quit! I just couldn't do it anymore and I didn't like the way the negativity at work made me feel at home. I certainly didn't want the baby growing inside of me to feel constant unhappiness before she even made her appearance into this world.
So, I quit. I an certainly not the kind of person to quit a job if I don't have anything else lined up and I have never really been "unemployed" for more than a few weeks so it's a scary and new challenge. But it was the right decision and I am happy at last. So I am looking for a new job, although it's quite a challenge nowadays, not to mention I'm 6 months pregnant. But it's ok. I am a strong believer that life happens the way it is supposed to and that Heavenly Father will look out for our little family. He always has before ;-)

On a lighter note... we are starting to prepare for our little girl and I am getting quite excited. We have actually picked out a name for her and although I tell Chad that I reserve the right to change her name once we actually see her, the name we have picked out feels right. So for now we are calling her Afton Elizabeth. Hopefully she will feel like an Afton after she is born.
We are also starting to prepare Afton's room...Finally! Our spare room/office/room collecting boxes and junk has started to look a little more like a nursery. We cleaned it out a little and we also sold our huge monstrous desk (pictured below) to make room for....

Afton's Crib!! Tadah!
We found our crib at Target for $150 bucks and it also included a free changing table. Yay! We were going to just get a crib and be creative with a changing table so this was a very unexpected blessing.
I have also finally picked out my nursery theme/colors. Below is a rough idea of the colors (as good as I could do in "paint.").
And my wonderful friend Lindsey has agreed to do some beautiful paintings for the baby's room. Below are the beautiful paintings that inspired my nursery idea. Thanks Lindsey!!



And last but certainly not least: some pregnant pics! For my sister especially. I feel like I am finally actually looking pregnant and not just completely bloated and fat. So I am now willing to post these :-)

22 weeks

24 weeks
I am happy! Although I am jobless, I am happy. I can honestly say I have never been happier than I am now. I have a wonderful supportive husband who makes me feel beautiful everyday despite my constant weight gain and growing belly. And I have a baby growing inside of me. Heavenly father has blessed our family tremendously. We couldn't ask for more.