MATERNITY PHOTOS & WEEK 36 PREGNANCY UPDATE…

August 25, 2016

I wanted to share with you the maternity photos we shot with the amazing photographer Allison of Lentille Photography! She is based here in Houston, Texas and does amazing photography for maternity, newborn, and family photoshoots…

WHITE DRESS c/o: Sew Trendy Accessories | FLOWY DRESS: Free People

(Both dresses and Alex’s outfit available at the studio’s wardrobe!)

I am SO happy with the way my maternity photos turned out and Allison captured what I was envisioning perfectly! I’m also so happy to have my husband Alex in a lot of the shots too! It was so fun having him come with me and be involved with this, because he has been so involved every step of the way with my pregnancy. At Allison’s studio, she has a hair and makeup artist she works with and a full studio wardrobe for mom, dad, and baby! So you basically just need to show up in sweatpants and she will make you look like a million bucks! 😉 Her calendar is getting booked for this fall, so if you want to book a session, be sure to do it sooner rather than later. I can’t wait to look back on these and remember my baby bump. We will cherish these maternity photos forever!

I also want to share with you all my 36 Week Bump Update! So this past week I have had some new and some same symptoms as before. I have been feeling unusually very tired and have such low energy. I feel like I always need to take a nap and rest even though I feel so un productive and it’s so not like me to want to do that all the time! It makes it hard to get anything done lately! I sometimes get nauseous after I eat and have had really bad acid reflux. Last night, I woke up in the middle of the night to myself choking on my own acid reflux and I couldn’t breathe! It was really scary and it scared Alex really bad too. I will usually take tums if it is unbearable or I will have to go sleep upright on the couch for the rest of the night. Another unusual symptom I’ve had the past month or so, but seems to be getting so much WORSE is my eye sight! I had perfect vision before and never needed glasses, but everything is blurry to me. I think I would be considered near sighted? I can’t see things more than 5 feet in front of me and even watching the tv is hard because everything is so blurry. My doctor said this is normal, and should hopefully go back to normal after the baby comes! I’ve also been having some Braxton Hicks contractions but they usually only last a few seconds and are very sporadic. My hands, feet and face are still swollen but not nearly as bad as they were a few weeks ago. They get worse if I am on my feet a lot, out in the heat, or if I eat a lot of high sodium food. I’ve been trying to avoid all of these things and the swelling has gone down so much. As far as weight gain, I’ve only gained a few pounds since the beginning of the third trimester. I notice most of my weight gain was in the first trimester, and it seems to have tapered off lately- which I’m happy about! lol I’ve been feeling full faster since everything is pressing up on my stomach, and I’ve been craving lots of fruit, smoothies, and salads. My biggest food craving has been cold watermelon!

Whenever I drink anything cold or have a popsicle, the baby will have hiccups! It is the cutest thing ever and my doctor said it is good she has the hiccups. It means she is practicing her breathing and getting her lungs ready for when she is born. Also, Alex and I have been taking baby classes this past month to get ourselves ready for her arrival. I highly recommend taking hands on classes at your hospital because we both learned so much! I’m grateful we did this because I feel so much more prepared and Alex does too. We have done an infant CPR class, how to care for newborn class, childbirth class, and breastfeeding. They were all really helpful, but I think the infant CPR and the breastfeeding class were the most important for me! And yes- Alex came to the breastfeeding class with me, and he said he learned a lot! lol It will be helpful for him to know what I am doing so he can encourage me during the breastfeeding process and remind me of things I might have forgotten. Another thing I have been doing is nesting and getting everything clean and ready for her arrival. I have had the hospital bags packed and ready for a while now and her nursery is all ready too. I also have her area set up in our bedroom because she will be sleeping in her bassinet for the first few months at least!

I can’t believe she will be here in only a few weeks and we finally get to see her and hold her! It seems so surreal and I haven’t quite grasped that fact that she will be here soon. It sometimes feels like I will be pregnant forever- especially since these last few weeks have been going by so slow! I will be posting my “What’s in Our Hospital Bags” video this week as well on my YouTube channel (Katelyn Jones)- so stay tuned for that! Thanks for stopping by and following along on my pregnancy journey! XOXO