I officially feel, pregnant.

I am now in my 28th week of pregnancy and I am definitely feeling it. The restless nights, ever expanding belly, leg cramps, acid reflux, among other things are keeping me feeling both comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time.

Pregnancy is a beautiful thing, even with all of the aches and pains. I may take longer to get up from the couch or sigh a little while trying to roll over in bed, but feeling those kicks and jabs from the little guy makes me forget all about the pain and reminds me of just how blessed I am to be carrying life inside of me.

For the last week, my in-laws have been visiting and even though we didn't do much, I am exhausted. I took today to collect myself, pick up the house, get the guest room cleaned up and ready for the next guests. I'm feeling as though I did in the first weeks of pregnancy though, tired, tired, tired.

While Paul's parents were here, we reassembled the cradle that my dad had built for Joey 12 years ago. Joey slept in it for the first couple of months, and it's been packed away ever since. This weekend we got it out, waxed it and put it in our room, ready for baby.



Along with getting the cradle set up and ready, my mother-in-law also helped me to get the crib set up. She purchased the crib for us a few weeks ago and then when she got here, we went shopping for the bedding that Paul had picked out. It's adorable and I have been spending some time in the nursery, imagining our sweet baby boy in his crib.



There are still a few things that need to be done to the room before it's complete, but his bed is ready for him.

We also got Joey's room all done up and nice while they were here. He now has the biggest of the three spare rooms and he seems to be loving it so far. We hung new pictures on his walls and he has been keeping his room a lot cleaner. Now if I can't just figure out what to do with the cats...

No underwire, thank you.

As I have become more pregnant and my belly has turned into a basketball other things have grown too. Since I've had to stop working out I've noticed an unfortunate (but fixable) difference in my rear and hips. Up until about two months ago I was still wearing my ever so comfy and favorite Victoria's Secret bras but of course, like "regular" clothes, that had to come to an end.

I hadn't given much thought about actually buying a nursing bra until I absolutely needed to, but wearing a sports bra every day has been getting kind of old and I needed something that had more of a "bra" look to it. I didn't want to go to VS and just purchase the next size up because starting in May, I will be wearing nursing bras for at least the next year. What is the point on spending $45 on my favorite bra now, only to wear it three months and then possibly not even be able to wear it after breastfeeding for a year, I'm sure my size will change, again.

I started with Motherhood Maternity, hoping that since in the back of the store they have a huge wall of nothing but bras. I've stayed away from that wall, because well, I just didn't want to be shopping for that yet! When I went in, the annoying girl who always seems to be working when I'm there, was there. She decided she'd help me even though I didn't want any help. Her useless help obviously got me no where and instead of walking out of there with new $19 maternity/nursing bras, I walked out with a new pair of shorts. (in hopes that it will be warming up soon).

When I got home, I started texting all of my friends who have been recently pregnant and used nursing bras. Most of my friends don't/didn't nurse their babies so it was a tough one. One friend in particular, who thinks a lot like me and has a larger bust like me, was the one who hit the jackpot. She sent me the link of a bra on Nordstrom.com that she used during her whole year of nursing and said it was amazingly comfortable.

These bras come in so many different types, just as regular bras do. Underwire, no underwire, flap, no flap. While I have always worn bras with underwire for own personal preferences, going to a nursing bra, I find that I should NOT be wearing underwire. It's great now, but honestly it's the most uncomfortable thing imaginable. With a basketball under my shirt, having that underwire dig in is not something I want to experience day after day, not to mention it's not good for you to wear while nursing because it can cause your milk ducts to clog.

No underwire it is. Since I really didn't know how these bras felt I had to make a trip to Nordstrom. Of course, their website has several different bras and they only carry one in the store. Of course. I ask to try it on and they don't even have the accurate size that I need, but I was able to gauge which one to get based on the comfort of the two I tried on. This bra was like heaven. I could wear it 24 hours a day and be comfortable, so I ordered it and I can't wait for it to be here!

It's amazing though, how much we pay for comfort. Maternity bras that I tried on at Target and Motherhood were around $15-30 and so horribly uncomfortable. This one that I ended up purchasing from Nordstorm was a whopping $55!!! But... that's comfort. Not much more than I pay for a bra a VS and I'll be wearing it for at least a year so really it's not that bad!

Shopping for all things baby is fun, exciting, confusing,  and most of all expensive but it is so worth it!