Welcome to my weekly life update where I share about my pregnancy & give you a peek into our life this past week. If you want to follow a lot more behind-the-scenes and real-time updates every week, be sure to follow my stories and posts on Instagram.
I’m 24 weeks this week! Instead of the usual belly pic, I’m bringing you a baby pic for my weekly pregnancy update. Because I can’t help but share this!
This was taken 4 1/2 weeks ago at my 20-week anatomy scan, but we just got the pictures and videos back this week and this one took my breath away.
Also, when we saw this, we immediately were all, “That is Silas’ nose and mouth!!” It was crazy to see Paine characteristics in utero at only 20 weeks!! We are so in love with this child!
Pregnancy Update
And now for a pregnancy update: I’m thrilled to report that this week was SO MUCH BETTER than last week!! Honestly, I had about 250% more energy, very little nausea, and almost no heartburn. I also slept like a rock every night but 2 nights. Say what?!?
The only thing I did differently was really take it easy over the weekend and make drinking water more of a priority. I honestly think that I’m figuring out that staying rested and having breathing room in my schedule plays a huge difference in how I feel overall — possibly even when it comes to things like heartburn and nausea. Or maybe it was just a fluke thing, but I’ll take it!!
My big goals for this next week are to get at least 7 hours of sleep every night (or at least to be in bed resting for 7 1/2 to 8 hours every night in hopes I’ll be sleeping for 7 of those hours!), to have a really restful Sunday (this seems to make a world of difference for my week!), and to get back to drinking a gallon of water per day (I’ve slowly been increasing my water intake now that it finally doesn’t make me sick!)
In other GREAT news, I passed my glucose test and my hemoglobin is at 10.0!!!! That is huge news for me and it seems like all the iron-rich foods, SlowFe, and Blood Builder I’m taking are working! I’m so grateful!
Thank you for your prayers, your constant encouragement, and the way you cheerlead me! I’m so grateful for each of you and how much you care about me, this precious baby, and our family. It’s truly humbling.
This Week at Our House
17 years ago last week, I walked down an aisle and committed to love and be faithful to my very best friend.
We had a budget wedding: I did my own hair and makeup and wore my mom’s dress, we hired the cheapest photographers we could find (as evidenced by the photo quality of these pictures!), and we had to set up folding chairs at the back of the church because there weren’t enough seats!
But the wedding details weren’t really what mattered (although there are a lot of funny stories and mishaps — like the fact that we hadn’t kissed before and totally botched the kiss at the ceremony or that my dad didn’t get my veil pulled back correctly so it stuck out all funky the entire ceremony!).
What mattered is that after years of dreaming of this day (Jesse and I met when we were 9 and 10 and liked each other from the time we were mid-teens), it had finally come and we were MARRIED!!
17 Years and One Thing Hasn’t Changed
I remember thinking on that day, “There’s no way I could love Jesse anymore than I do now!”
Well, 4 kids, 7 moves, lots of struggles and triumphs, and countless jobs and businesses later, our love is far deeper and stronger than I could have ever imagined back on our wedding day 17 years ago.
We might be a little grayer and more wrinkled, one of us might have a few more stretch marks, we might be a little more tired, and we might be a little less idealistic and more realistic, but one thing hasn’t changed: we are still fiercely in love and committed to fight for our marriage.
Jesse, thank you for falling in love with that big-glasses, big bangs, and bushy-eyebrowed girl all those years ago. You are one of God’s greatest gifts ever given to me! ❤️
Want to see a few more pictures from our wedding? I posted them on Instagram here. (Just hit the arrow button to see them.)
Kathrynne has been working hard to declutter and re-organize her closet. We want to At Home yesterday and took advantage of some of their sales to get some organizational items.
Her closet looks so clean and clutter-free now — and she can easily find whatever she’s looking for! (I posted some sneak peeks on Instagram stories yesterday and will do a full post on Friday with before and after pictures of her efforts!)
Kaitlynn and I went shopping for baby clothes yesterday! I had a $50 Target gift card and we found some really fantastic clearance deals, so we only spent $45 and we are all stocked up on the basics for newborn and 3 month clothes. It was so fun to get to shop for baby clothes… it was the first baby stuff we’ve purchased and made it feel SO real!
If you’ve been curious as to whether Butcher Box is worth the price, be sure to check out my really honest review that I posted this past week here.
If you need a laugh, go watch this short live video where I try to unbox my jewelry box and then cannot get these new earrings in my ear. Oh goodness… you just never know what will happen on live video!
Beth says
So a little teasing: is the 7 hours of sleep a goal because you’re struggling to sleep? Or is that actually all you need to function while pregnant?!? I recently had a pregnant friend complain that the unisom she was taking for nausea was making her need 8-9 hours of sleep. I told her, “Sorry Honey, but I’m pretty sure that’s just pregnancy.” 😉
Yay for good lab results!!
Crystal Paine says
That’s more because my kids’ or us usually have evening activities and we often don’t get home until after 9 p.m. most nights and then I really need to be up by 5:30 a.m. if I want to get the things done I need to get done in the morning. So, I have to be super intentional to get in bed by 10 p.m. (I usually can come up with lots of things I “need” or want to do in the evenings after we get home!)
That said, because of my pregnancy, it’s rare that I actually sleep more than 7 hours at a time (I think maybe I’ve done that twice in the last few months?). I usually wake up because of insomnia or nausea, etc. I guess my body is just preparing for waking up a lot more! 🙂
Akaya says
It’s so neat getting your life updates! Thank you for being so relatable 🙂 I’d love to read a post about how (if) you plan to work ahead in preparation for baby’s arrival. Do you plan to have more guest posts here, or are you creating content ahead?
Crystal Paine says
We’ll probably have some guest posts, and I’m working on some content that I’ll create ahead. But then I’ll also be posting some in real-time, too. I’m planning to take a real maternity leave for the first time ever (I was usually back to working within 24 hours or less), but I will likely still write some posts while I’m on “leave” as those are so life-giving to me and it’s hard to imagine not blogging since I’ve done it almost every single day for close to 15 years!
Content creation is honestly just a small part of my job these days and probably only takes about 10% of my work time. So I’m going to be cutting back in a lot of other areas and streamlining/delegating other responsibilities (or just letting them go for a few weeks) so that I will be cutting my work hours way back during my maternity leave. But I don’t plan to be completely offline at all — because I’d miss what I do here and all the wonderful people way too much! But I do plan to take it super, super easy and do most of my blogging from bed while the baby is napping or nursing! 🙂
JoDi says
As I was looking at the baby photo before I read your comments about it, I was thinking that the baby resembles Silas so I was glad it wasn’t just me when I read that you guys do too! It is incredible to see how wonderfully we’re made!
Crystal Paine says
Yes! It was fascinating how many people said that without us even mentioning it!!
Diana says
What a beautiful baby picture 😊. Thank you for being so kind for sharing with us!!
Crystal Paine says
You are so welcome!
Patti Smith says
Sooooo exciting! Thanks for sharing this journey. What a beautiful baby, the scan was incredible:)
Crystal Paine says
Thank you so much for being part of the journey with me!
Jessica says
24 weeks sounds so far along (to those of us not expecting at least!)! That photo makes it all so real!!
Crystal Paine says
I can’t believe that I’m so close to 25 weeks — which feels like a huge milestone to me and then it starts the countdown to baby!
Anees says
Just a warning, My second baby did not fit into newborn clothes from birth. I didn’t realize this until I was dressing her to leave the hospital and couldn’t squeeze her into the outfit I brought!
You might want to wait to buy newborn clothes until you are closer to delivery. (The same goes for diapers!) That way you can return them if you deliver a chunky monkey, like me!
(Both me and my husband are small people and my first baby was average in height and weight)
Crystal Paine says
We usually have the opposite problem! All three of my babies have been on the smaller side and then they grow slowly. I’ve learned that I usually need a lot more small clothes than most people do. 🙂 However, I usually only have 5-6 newborn outfits and then 8 or so outfits for 0-3 months and that is usually enough if we do laundry every other day or every third day!