Tag: announcements

Some news

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If you know me in real life or on Facebook, then this is old news by now. But if not, I’ve got some exciting new news!

I am 15 weeks along (holy cow!). This pregnancy has been quite different from my first so far, and not in a good way. I could barely eat during the first trimester — everything made me feel sick. It was so bad at one point that I stayed home from work one day, which I’ve never done before.

But right when I hit 13 weeks the clouds seemed to part and my second trimester came as a warm welcome. Now I’ve got newfound energy, a healthy appetite, and honestly, I just feel normal again. I’ll enjoy it while it lasts!

Mini-bump beginning to emerge

Mini-bump beginning to emerge

There are some other differences this time around, in addition to the enhanced morning sickness. For instance:

  • I haven’t been journaling every day and recording symptoms/thoughts/etc.
  • I’ve only taken two official bump photos.
  • I ate a ham sandwich at the airport on Sunday and was like, eh, lunchmeat, I’m sure I’ll be fine
  • I drank a small glass of dry (alcoholic) cider while on vacation, and many sips of others’ wine and cocktails (this was after I hit the second trimester)
  • I haven’t read any of those “your baby is the size of a lemon” updates or downloaded any pregnancy apps
  • I’ve already switched to maternity pants and wore my first maternity sweater the other day (partially this is because my maternity jeans are really cute and comfy, and I want to get use of my winter maternity gear while it’s still unbearably cold)

Just a little bit more laid back this time. I think the main difference, though, is that the first time around I was all-consumed by the pregnancy and ME being pregnant. I couldn’t possibly understand or appreciate what life would be like when the pregnancy stage was over and we had a baby. In some ways, I enjoyed pregnancy because it was this grand anticipation of something unknown, life-altering and slightly scary. It was all I knew at that point.

But now that I’ve been through it all, I have a better grasp on the fact that the pregnancy is just one small part – and not even the most fun part. I will do my best to enjoy this pregnancy as much as I (yes) enjoyed my first, but now that I know how great the prize is at the end, it’s hard not to see pregnancy as kind of a burden to get through (especially when you have morning sickness or when you remember how swollen your feet were in the third trimester). I was just getting used to not being pregnant and not nursing/pumping around the clock when we found out I was pregnant again, so for selfish reasons I wish I could enjoy my normal body for a while. But we chose to have our second be close in age with Corban, and I know that is a good thing (for them if not for us).

So although I’m not as excited for the physical aspect of pregnancy this time around, I think I’m more excited about having a baby (if that makes sense). Knowing how wonderful each stage of new life is makes me happy in a way that I couldn’t understand or imagine before becoming a mom.

Here we go again!

The birth announcements

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I’m a big snail mail person. I just love paper, letters, stamps and the printed word.

So even in this age when a baby’s birth is announced to the world via Facebook just hours – or even minutes – after he takes his first breath, I still wanted to mail out formal birth announcements.

Unlike choosing our wedding invitations, which took me hours of poring over every invitation in the gigantic bound books only to decide to design them myself, I instantly fell in love with this birth announcement from Tiny Prints before Corban was even born.

(I just noticed their sample’s birthday is today!)

But, I thought, why pay their prices when I could probably design something similar and have it printed myself?

And so I did. I Photoshopped up my own version, ordered pretty envelopes and did a test print at Kinkos on cardstock I had found at Walmart.

There were only a few problems: their printing of the photo didn’t look that great, the cardstock wasn’t very sturdy, I would have had to cut each announcement out myself and it actually wasn’t going to save me very much money at all.

Fail.

(Tiny Prints version on the left, my version on the right)

So after all that, when Corban was a month old, I just decided to order the announcement from Tiny Prints. I found a coupon code that brought the price down, and I swooned for their awesome striped back on which you can add a second photo.

Of course, not one to keep things simple, I also had to go and buy some kraft paper labels to print the addresses on and therefore spend way too much time fighting with our printer to get them to print right… but I won’t bore you with the details of that.

So despite my early choosing of our birth announcement, they still didn’t get mailed out till Corban was six weeks old. Luckily, it was right before postage went up by one cent (the little things, right?) and I think people understand that things like formal announcements aren’t exactly the number one priority when you’re adjusting to life with a newborn.

In the end, I don’t care that it took me way longer than it should have to get these mailed. I love the way the whole package turned out. I would definitely recommend Tiny Prints for their really high quality printing and adorable designs. I was glad I had already ordered colored envelopes before I decided not to DIY the announcements, though, because these envelopes are much nicer than the ones that come with the cards. This picture shows a bit more accurate coloring:

Would you/did you send formal birth announcements or do you think Facebook pictures do the job just fine these days? I think despite Facebook, people really appreciate being mailed a picture like this!

No more belly pics

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… or weekly pregnancy updates.

That’s because on Thursday, December 8, at 10:45 p.m. we welcomed Corban James Sherwood into the world!

Born at 36.5 weeks, he was a healthy 6 pounds, 8 ounces, and measured 19 inches.

The early date, of course, was a big surprise to us. Just 40 minutes before I went into labor I was telling a co-worker how I planned on being around the office until Christmas. Then the labor and delivery were a mere 5 hours total, so the quickness in which or lives changed so dramatically has made this all the more shocking and exciting of a weekend.

I am so overwhelmed with emotions, and have so much more to share, but for now suffice to say Corban is incredible and we are blissfully enjoying our new status as a family of three.