This is our home in Georgia! Our apartment's being upturned and filled with boxes as we simultaneously prepare for baby and to move. I wanted to do a post about this space before it's not our space anymore. I pulled some pictures from past Instagram posts and some I quickly snapped last week without worrying about stylizing anything. That picture up there is the front of our building. The trees out front are in bloom for maybe 2-3 weeks in February. They haven't bloomed yet this year, but I think they're about to. My theory is that they'll bloom when it's baby time. Hopefully sometime this weekend! I love Georgia's early spring.
This is what you see when you walk into our apartment. Minus all the Christmas stuff and plus a green couch. Also minus that beautiful rug that we had to throw out last summer because fleas. As much as I love the weather in the south, the fleas I could do without. We have Savvy on a flea/tick prescription but still had some problems last summer.
This is the other side of our living room. Clearly I didn't bother fancying anything up. When possible I keep all my weaving supplies on that cart in the corner. Right now they're kinda all over though.
This is our sunroom/office, just off the main room when you walk in. You can see our plants dying in the corner. They've looked really good for most of the time we lived here, but then we kept leaving for months at a time all through my pregnancy and now they're dying off. I don't know how we would have transported them across the country when we move anyway, so it's ok.
This is the right-hand wall in the sunroom. Clearly unstyled. It's where Jared keeps his art supplies and I store some of my finished weavings. These were like my first 2 weavings ever so they're pretty rough. Someday when I get my life back together I'll start a small business selling woven wall hangings. Dream big, my friends. Dream big.
This is our porch just off the sunroom. Having an outdoor space is so important to me, but we hardly ever use this porch. As soon as the weather gets nice it's swarming with mosquitoes back there. Yay the south! It's still nice to have for Savvy though.
This is the back of our apartment. We love that no one ever comes back here because we can let Savvy out on her retractable leash when she needs to pee or just wants to sit in the pine needles and watch the world go by (you can kind of see the main road through all the trees behind our apartment). It's not the same as having a yard for her, but I'm glad we have it. And no worries, she does get 2-3 actual real walks a day. I take her on a 20-minute walk in the morning and Jared takes her for a run when he gets home from work.

p.s. The above two pictures are from my @SimpletonPleasures instagram, which I may or may not start back up again after the baby arrives. I had planned to keep it going when I got pregnant so I could continue to grow a following and have a good launching point when I start a business someday, but I was just too sick. Oh well!
This is our kitchen (and also Jared's leg after he got back from a run). It's to the left when you walk into the apartment. They had recently renovated the kitchen before we moved in so we've felt pretty fancy in this space. Although we do look forward to hopefully having a bit more kitchen storage next time we move. 
This is our "dining room" nook right off the kitchen. You can see it's already starting to fill up with suitcases and boxes.
And this is the view down our hallway. Straight ahead is our itty bitty "walk-in" closet. The door on the left is a little closet where we keep our games and Savvy's things. Beyond that door our bathroom is to the left, and our bedroom is to the right. Some of my more recent woven wall hangings hang in the hallway.
Yay, a cute little bathroom! I obviously snapped this pic on the fly without even bothering to wipe down the mirror.
This is the other side. Much cuter. Our bathroom vanity has no drawers so we've made do with this ikea cart. And the picture above it is one I took in Provo Canyon. Utah's so pretty.
This is our "walk-in closet" lol. It's actually the first walk-in closet we've ever had, but somehow it offers much less space for clothes than the closets in the other 3 apartments we've lived in. The bathroom is to the left and the bedroom is to the right.
This is our room. It has for sure seen better design days, but at this point all I require of it is that it provide space for us and the baby to sleep. We've started packing it up as best we can, and you can see a bit of the baby's pack n' play in the corner. Also, Savvy always hops onto the bed as soon as I start making it. Instead of trying to shoo her off I just make it over her and eventually she crawls out. I know some people think it's gross to let your dog on the furniture, but the 2 reasons we even got a dog were (1) adventure/hiking buddy, and (2) snuggle buddy. Can't get the snugs if she's not allowed on the furniture. I'm way too pregnant to get down on her level on the floor.
This is the other side of the bedroom. I started that giant pizza weaving a year ago and then it got put on hold because #pregnant. Most people don't end up having to put everything on hold while they grow a baby, but I really did. I'm feeling ok enough now that I'm going to try my hardest to finish it before baby arrives. It'll be easier to transport when it's off the loom. I just have to fill in that last little gap and add some pepperonis.

Whelp, that's the grand tour! Other than the lack of natural light and storage space, we have really loved living here for the past two years. We especially love the secret hole in the fence behind our apartment complex where we take Savvy to play fetch and go for runs. That's rare to find this close to downtown Atlanta. If we end up in the West we're hoping we can get into a house with a yard next! Not sure if we'll be renting or buying, but I'll keep you posted. Also there's a chance we'll end up in NYC, in which case a studio apartment it is. Trying not to have any expectations at this point. We'll find out in March where we're moving next. We can't wait!

Sweet Home Atlanta, GA

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(Title from this funny youtube video that my brother Tim shared with me right after I announced my gregnancy.)
You guys. I have tried to write a pregnancy post so many times. You don't even know. Every time I try it gets so long-winded and whiny that I just get disgusted with myself and delete it. But "write a pregnancy blog post" is on my list of things I need to do before baby is born, so let's do this! I will try keep it a reasonable length so I don't hate myself and I'll plug in the handful of bump pictures I've taken.

First off, if for some reason you didn't know, surprise! I'm having a baby! And it's a boy! He's due February 27, but with all the cramping and contractions I've been having lately he could come any time now and I wouldn't be shocked.

I'm very grateful that we're going to have a baby, but my pregnancy has sucked big time. There were times I legitimately worried I wouldn't make it out alive. That's why you haven't heard from me until now. I was honestly too sick to do anything but crouch on my bedroom floor with a barf bowl for the first 23 weeks, and the weeks since then haven't been a whole ton better. I'm slightly more functional but still unable to wean off my nausea pills. At least I'm almost done! Instead of giving you a play-by-play of every weird/horrific/difficult/awkward moment I've had over the past 9 months, I thought it might be fun to discuss the delightful interactions between my symptoms.
16 weeks. Our apartment complex. Professional bump model.
21 Weeks in Georgia.
The Morning Sickness Paradox. Ok first off, what the heck is up with morning sickness? I've been fascinated in talking to friends/family to discover that it's so different for everyone. My debilitating "morning" sickness has lasted all day and all night all pregnancy long. For me, the nausea was highly associated with my food aversions to literally everything. Even crackers/ginger ale/water. Just thinking about or catching a whiff of any type of food up until I hit 23 weeks was enough to make me lose it. And yet, the only relief I get from the nausea to this day is by eating every two hours. It's like food is both the trigger and the cure for the extreme nausea and vomiting. That's whack.

Nausea's Relief = Booty's Downfall. The only medicine I've been able to find that does anything to help my nausea is Zofran. It doesn't take the nausea away, but it does keep me from vomiting and take a tiny bit of the edge off. Unfortunately, a side effect of Zofran (and of pregnancy in general) is constipation. This is for sure TMI, but my constipation has been so severe in pregnancy that I've had hemorrhoids since week 15. I've tried to wean off Zofran several times to ease my poopy problem, but I always end up way sick. Not worth it. I'd rather live with a burning booty than spend my days cradling a barf bowl. Extreme nausea is way worse than physical pain. (and yes, I'm making sure to drink plenty of water and have lots of fiber.)

24 Weeks. At our hotel in Richland, WA, on the morning of Jared's residency interview. What a dapper guy.
25 Weeks. At my brother Peter's wedding luncheon in the Lion House.
Guys. I have spent 3 months of this pregnancy traveling around (mostly I was in Utah).
Also it was interview/away rotation season for Jared so we spent 3 months apart from each other!!
Hemmies' Relief = Heartburn's Rage. Jared calls my hemmorhoids "hemmies." I'm glad he's picked a career in medicine because otherwise I'd be mortified to talk about this stuff with him. Luckily he's seen dozens of cases of hemmies in real life and in textbooks, so instead of being grossed out he just gets excited to recommend treatment options. Not the point though. I just want to point out another example of how the only way I get relief for one symptom is by exacerbating a different one. The worst thing I can do for my hemmorhoids is spend my days sitting and walking around. I have to spend a good chunk of my day lying down if I want to keep them from flaring up. Unfortunately, lying down is not great for heartburn, which is another delightful pregnancy symptom! Many nights I have to choose if I'd rather my esophagus be on fire or my bum be on fire and then position myself accordingly. 

Urge to Nest vs. Need to Purge. Let's take a break from my weird physical issues and talk about the weird timing of this baby coming. Baby will be here at the end of February. We will be moving across the country at the end of March. We'll be moving somewhere else in June for Jared's residency, but in the meantime we'll live with my parents in Utah. I feel like I'm trapped in a cycle of packing things up to move, trying to minimize our belongings so we don't have to store them all summer, and acquiring all sorts of junk that we'll need for the baby. I really want to set up a cute nursery for this little guy, but he'll have to live in a pack n' play in our box-filled bedroom until he's at least 4 months old. Sorry dude.
27 Weeks in Billings, Montana, for another of Jared's residency interviews.
I went with him to as many of his Western interviews as possible so I could check out the area/attend the resident dinners.
Our fetus at 15 weeks. I'm excited to see if he's grown into that nose yet!
Water. Oh water. How I hate it, but how I need it. The weirdest things make me feel so sick in pregnancy--our clean laundry, my husband's natural aroma, our car, and water. Drinking water is especially difficult for me in the evenings when I feel most nauseated. Plus, I have to get up 5+ times a night to pee these days so if I had my way I wouldn't drink anything at all after 6:00. Unfortunately I have this fun condition called Interstitial Cystitis. I've had it for years, and the best way to describe it is that it feels like a dormant urinary tract infection that can flare up at any time and last as long as it wants. I'll have it for life and there is no cure. I can usually manage my cystitis by avoiding trigger foods (like citrus) and by drinking LOTS of water. In fact, the only way to get rid of a flareup once it comes on is to guzzle liters and liters of water. So anyway, as much as I loathe gagging down water all day, it's either that or crippling, burning pain. I'm so excited for pregnancy to end so I can like water again.

Other Fun Stuff. This bb either really loves or really hates car rides. If I'm sitting in a car for longer than 10 minutes at a time, he twerks up into my ribcage and pushes against it so uncomfortably until I'm able to either stand up or lie down on my side. This was great during our recent cross-country road trip (not). Combine the ribcage abuse with my hemmorhoids and I spent 90% of that drive lying down in the back seat so I wouldn't lose my mind. Shoutout to Jared for driving like 80 hours in one month. Also, I've been blessed with never-ending round ligament pain (cramps on steroids) and Braxton Hicks contractions in my last month of pregnancy. #soblessed.
30 Weeks. Christmas Eve. Driving across the country to make it to Jared's away rotation in Casper, WY, by December 27.

34 Weeks in Utah.
I feel like this is the cutest version of my bump. Shoulda done a maternity shoot at 34 weeks!

Me: 34 Weeks. Amanda: 36 Weeks.
My brother and his wife are due 2 weeks before us with a baby boy! I think today's actually her due date.
Me and Savvy for the majority of my pregnancy. We've had lots of bonding time.

My maternity shoot on the railroad tracks behind our apartment!
I include this awkward pose only because it's Jared's favorite of the bunch. He says it's very Lana Del Rey.
And since he was kind enough to be my photographer (and to talk me into getting this dress), I'll let him have that.

37 Weeks

I felt a bit silly doing the cliche train tracks photoshoot, but it was the easiest option. I wanted to take these somewhere I knew we wouldn't have any onlookers, and I didn't want to have to travel to go somewhere.
These train tracks are right behind our apartment complex through a hole in the fence.
We take Savvy for walks here almost daily.

These are the only "nice" pictures we took my entire pregnancy. So yes, I'm including all of them.

Jared and I binge watched "Poldark" a few weeks back. Jared loves that type of show and it must've put him in a romantic mood because he spontaneously brought me a dozen roses! It was a very sweet and un-Jared-like gesture (he's romantic in other ways but never thinks to buy me flowers), so I made a big thing of it and asked if I could use one in my photo shoot.
The fetch spot. It's so fetch.
Also, walking up and down this short, low hill gave me contractions for dayyyz.
It must be nearly baby time!
Pregananant

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